KARACHI:Religious harmony in the Pakistani society for peaceful coexistence is a need of the hour and for this purpose besides religious leaders, the civil society should also play its role, said Maulana Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and Chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council at Lahore.

Maulana Ashrafi pointed out that the government has launched the Paigham-e-Pakistan movement for promoting interfaith harmony, according to a statement issued on Tuesday. Under the Paigham-e-Pakistan programme, the government would establish inter-faith committees of different faiths at the district levels. “We believe in dialogue and our message is don’t leave your faith but don’t tease others’ beliefs,” he remarked.

Ashrafi was speaking at a meeting with a 20-member delegation from Sindh on inter-faith harmony, who are visiting the Punjab capital since Wednesday. Besides religious leaders, the delegation members are also comprised of officers of Departments of Human Rights and Minority Affairs, the government of Sindh.

During their stay in Lahore, the delegation members met with Punjab Minister for Social Welfare and Auqaf Yawar Bukhari, Provincial Minister for Human Rights, Minority Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Ijaz Masih and officers of federal Evacuee Trust Board. The members also visited the Safe Cities Project’s Control Centre, where the Commander of the Project Asim Jasra briefed the delegation about working at the centre. He showed the CCTV monitoring system, social media monitoring system, 15 complaint centre to the participants and explained how the system has helped the law enforcement authorities to nab the criminals and solve difficult cases.

Currently, all calls on 15 number are received in Lahore’s centre and after properly attending and recording the case is immediately forwarded to control room of the concerned district. He said IT experts are employed in the control centre and they are provided proper trainings.

He pointed out that this is the second-largest Safe Cities Project in the world, where state of art technology is used with high density cameras. In Lahore city over 8000 modern cameras are installed at all thoroughfares. Now, e-challan is also being issued and the traffic law violators receive challans with four pictures showing their violations at their home address through Pakistan Post. In case an e-challan is not paid, the violator can be arrested and heavily fined. This has helped improve the traffic system in Lahore, he added.

The Commander of the Control Centre said under the Safe Cities Project, social media is also being closely watched and the pages, which are promoting hatred and anti-state narratives are being blocked through Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The delegates from Sindh expressed their keen interest in the facilities available under the Safe Cities Project in Lahore. They underlined the need for such facilities in Sindh as well. The street crimes in Karachi are on the rise and such a state-of-the-art system would help control the crimes, they said.

The delegation held a meeting with various committees of the Punjab Assembly including the Provincial Committee on Human Rights, Punjab Parliamentary Working Group on CVE and Punjab Women Peace Council. Members of the Punjab Assembly including Uzma Kardar, Ayesha Iqbal, Saleem Akhtar, Qasim Abbas and Syeda Zehra Naqvi attended the meeting. Speaking at the meeting Ms Uzma Kardar said that the parliamentarians of Punjab are well aware of the problems of religious extremism and trying to promote inter-faith harmony.

Earlier, at a presentation, Punjab Minister Yawar Abbas Bukhari said that the department is actively working for providing a wide range of welfare services, including services for the impoverished strata that include the persons with disability and the elderly, rehabilitation and medical social services as well as family and child welfare services.

He said in the Punjab Assembly, he has always promoted inter-faith harmony. Our welfare services cover a range of preventive, nurturing, supportive and remedial measures. We seek to allocate resources to the neediest to meet their basic needs and help them move from welfare to self-reliance. He hoped that the public at large, the civil society including NGOs, the welfare sector and the business community will continue to forge partnerships with the government in building up a welfare society in true spirit.

Punjab Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Mr Ijaz Masih pointed out that the provincial government had prepared the first every Punjab Interfaith Harmony Policy, which is being presented before the Cabinet for approval. For this purpose, consultations were held with various stakeholders and he hoped that other provinces would also prepare such a policy.

The participants also attended a seminar on Bhagat Singh on the occasion of 91st Martyrdom Day at Dyal Singh Library. The delegation members visited Gurudwara Dera Sahib, in which the officials of Evacuee Trust Board briefed them about the importance of this religious place for the Sikh community. Later, at the office of Evacuee Trust Board, the delegation members were briefed about the working of the Board. Additional Secretary of the Board, Rana Shahid gave a presentation to the members of the delegation. He said the Board is looking after temples of Hindus and Gurudwaras of Sikhs in all the four provinces. The Board have preserved many important religious places in Pakistan, he added.