MINGORA: Poets and scholars from Pakistan and Afghanistan on Saturday called for collective efforts to restore lasting peace in the region.

They were speaking at a seminar on “role of art and literature in promotion of peace”, organised by Sustainable Development Society here at a local hotel. The seminar was aimed at providing a platform to poets and artists to discuss the causes of unrest in the Pakhtun areas and suggest possible solutions of the problems.

The speakers said that education about the local culture and language should be imparted to students, as arts and culture played a major role in development of a society.

Speaking on the occasion, Pashto poet Rahmat Shah Sail said that the decades-long unrest had brought the Pakhtuns to a stage, where they were not able to differentiate between ‘violent and non-violent movements’. “Peace can be restored when we are united for this noble cause,” he said and added that a proper strategy would be needed to achieve lasting peace. He said that Pakhtuns had been suffering due to the war imposed on them.

Darvesh Durrani, a Pashto poet from Balochistan, said that they had been facing terrorism in their areas from last over three decades. He said that peace could be restored and maintained in a society through politics, literature and journalism.

Jamal Shah, director of Hunerkada, Islamabad, said that art and literature worked like oxygen in a society, adding that poets were expressing the life in their poetry, which was basically aimed at highlighting problems of the society.

He said that the prevailing situation in Pakhtun belt was aimed at weakening the skills and culture of Pakhtun, adding that it was needed to initiate a dialogue at all levels to set a direction for the society.

Pashto poet Aimal Khattak, poets from Afghanistan, including Suleman Shah Kamjo and Kamal Saadat, and representatives of minorities Manglish Kumar and Sameul Gill also spoke on the occasion and urged a collective struggle for the promotion of peace in the country. The speakers asked the artists and poets to work for promotion of tolerance in the society.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014