ISLAMABAD: Over 100 posters depicting hope for world peace, social justice and equal human rights were put on display at the Government Polytechnic Institute for Women (GPIW), H-8, on Saturday to mark International Peace Day.

Themed on ‘actions for peace’, the art works are mostly designed, painted and prepared by girl students from different schools and colleges of the twin cities.

The exhibition was organised by Devcom-Pakistan in collaboration with the Government Polytechnic Institute for Women (GPIW) H-8.

Well-known artist and senior teacher Cambridge Art and Design at Westminster Riffat Ara Baig was the chief jury. She said the students showed their creative skills and thoughts in meaningful compositions.

“The strong visuals quite effectively communicate the message of peace and tolerance. The youth have successfully highlighted peace disrupting elements and forces too that shows their understanding level of the issues in depth,” she added.

The GPIW principal, Kausar Parveen, highlighted the initiatives that the government had taken to empower young girls to narrow down economic disparity.

“Several steps have been taken to enhance vocational education and youth grooming through a variety of initiatives and programmes. Youth cannot be engaged in peace restoring activities until they are taught the actual meaning of peace that may be derived out of our religion. The creative pursuits would certainly lead the youth to well-groomed citizens,” she said.

Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed, while introducing the peace poster exhibition, said: “A competition was organised among the students to inculcate passion to understand the concepts of peace in society and globally. They have painted many meaningful images of hope through their creative expressions in different mediums including oil on canvas, acrylics on canvas, charcoal, pastels, water colours and sketching with colour pencils.”

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2023