Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, addressing a meeting of vice chancellors of public and private universities in Punjab on Thursday, said that protection of students and teachers was a collective responsibility which would be discharged efficiently.
The meeting which lasted four hours reviewed security arrangements for public and private universities in detail and took the various proposals into consideration.
The chief minister, on the occasion, announced setting up of a joint action committee for further improving security arrangements at universities, and said ministers, government officials, intellectuals, educationists and vice chancellors concerned would be made members of this committee which would be completely autonomous in financial and administrative matters regarding security arrangements.
Sharif said that Punjab was spending billions of rupees on promotion of education and security of students studying at different educational institutions was the top priority of his government.
He said there would be no shortage of resources for security arrangements for teachers and students, adding that the war on terror was aimed at survival of the country and the mindset of extremism and terrorism would have to be defeated.
Sharif said that the war on terror would have to be fought on the ideological front with full force, adding that there was a need to evolve a counter terrorism narrative and universities would have to play an important role in checking the trend of intolerance.
“There is a need to forge unity in our ranks for foiling the nefarious designs of enemy,” he said, adding that besides elimination of extremism and terrorism, hatred and religious differences would also have to be buried.
He said that terrorists and their facilitators would be rooted out and the war against terrorism would be won at any cost. “The trend of intolerance and religious hatred will also have to be controlled,” he added.
The chief minister stressed the need for collective efforts for setting up a society based on tolerance and restraint, saying there was no room for extremism in Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam.
He said the Operation Zarb-e-Azb had broken the back of terrorists, but there was a need for promotion of sentiments of tolerance and restraint in society.
Sharif said that departments and universities’ administration would have to work with effective coordination for further improving security arrangements of universities. He said that effective security audit was essential for checking security measures of all universities and professional approach would have to be adopted for this purpose.