ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Thursday said there was a need to make collective efforts, especially engaging students of educational institutions, for countering terrorism and extremism in society.

Speaking at a seminar, “Contemporary Pakistan” held at Iqra University Islamabad, Mr Rabbani said parliament was looking towards the positive and optimistic approach of the youth of Pakistan to put an end to the culture of intolerance which was creeping into the society.

“It is the collective responsibility of educational institutions and the nation as a whole to achieve this task. However, unfortunately, application of the law is different for people belonging to different stratums of society. The powerful can buy justice for themselves and the poor people keep wandering in search of justice,” he said.

He said if the law was respected and the constitutional supremacy accepted in the country, there was no reason why institutions couldn’t be strengthened and a stable system couldn’t come into place.

Mr Rabbani told the students that during the Zia era student unions, trade unions and activities such as sessions in the Pak Teahouse were banned because the dictator feared that such activities would bring about the same fate to his regime as that to General Ayub Khan. He said the state functionaries did not realise that if academic independence, freedom to think and express were snatched from the citizens, the positive change through a peaceful process cannot prevail.

Book launched

Meanwhile, speaking at a ceremony held to launch a book written by PPP MNA Dr Nafisa Shah at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services, Mr Rabbani said societies which lacked love and brotherhood drifted towards terrorism.

“Today people are being killed in our educational institutions and crowds are taking decisions. We need to introduce a culture of tolerance,” he said.

The book, Honour Unmasked, a combination of 10 years of field work and six years of scholarly work by Dr Shah, highlights the issue of honour killing, its reasons and the solution.

National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said moral education was not taught in the educational institutions of Pakistan due to which the citizens did not respect each other.

He said Dr Shah played a vital role in legislation and her book would also contribute to it.

She said the book revolved around the cultural and political philosophy and provided an opportunity to the reader to understand the issue of honour killing, especially in Sindh.

“I have got the opportunity to work at different platforms and collected different perspectives and got them combined,” she said.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017