PHEC weeklong campaign concludes at UVAS

To commemorate the martyrs of Army Public School Peshawar (APS), the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore, in collaboration with the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and Inter-University Consortium for the Promotion of Social Sciences (IUCPSS), organised the concluding ceremony of a week-long awareness campaign here on Friday at UVAS city campus Lahore.

PHEC Chairperson Professor  Dr Mohammad Nizamud Din presided over the concluding ceremony, while UVAS Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, Government College University VC Syed Hassan Amir Shah, University of Education (UoE) VC Dr Rauf-i-Azam, Government University College Faisalabad VC Dr M Ali Shah, Bahauddin Zakaria University Acting VC Dr Bashir Ahmed, senior columnist Salman Abid and a large number of UVAS students, faculty members and representatives from civil society attended the ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Dr Mohammad Nizamud Din said that the blood of APS martyrs has united all of us as a nation against the menace of terrorism.

He emphasised that we need to work at the individual, societal and national level to counter this curse.  “PHEC is actively promoting the message of peace and tolerance in the society, especially in universities and higher education institutions of Punjab through its various initiatives,” he added.

Dr Nizamudin said that we need to bring the structural reforms into the education system, and should also employ our serious efforts to counter the curse of terrorism in our society. “We need to revive and strengthen the student societies in our higher education institutions. Beside this, we also need to work to minimise the role of political parties in student politics,” he said.

He also said that maintaining peace is not only the responsibility of the government but also the responsibility of the civil society and academic institutions.

UVAS VC Professor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha said that in order to counter the threat of terrorism, it is direly needed to bring the level of pauperisation down in the society. “Through quality education, we can alleviate poverty and bring peace to our society,” he added.

UoE VC Dr Rauf-e-Azam, while addressing the ceremony, emphasised on the collaborative efforts towards peaceful and tolerant university campuses. “We must promote the values of co-existence and harmony in the society among the youths,” he said.

The aim of the weeklong activities was to create awareness among the youth to promote peace and tolerance in the Pakistani society.

Various performances including debate, poetry, musical performances, artwork, and poster presentations featured the week-long awareness campaign held in different universities of Punjab to pay a rich tribute to martyrs of APS Peshawar and highlighted the message of peace.