ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Local leaders hailing from various districts from Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Punjab vowed to control violence and promote peace in their communities through collaborative and result-oriented approaches.

The five-day training workshop on peace building, which started on February 1 and concluded here on Tuesday, was jointly organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Search for Common Ground (SFCG).

The training was aimed at enhancing the capacity of Pakistan's local leaders to explore issues affecting them through a constructive approach towards reconciliation and peace building.The workshop was attended by 16 participants comprising local political leaders, tribal elders, religious scholars, Jirga members, district government officials, representatives from civil society organisations and the private sector.

These trained leaders for peace would also participate in forthcoming district-level dialogue forums where they will engage in constructive discussions on peace building and democratisation processes.

Executive Director SDPI, Dr Abid Suleri stated that conflict transformation implies finding a common ground between conflicting parties, which essentially creates a win-win situation for all.

Participants learned successful negotiation skills including establishing common goals, focusing on interests not positions, separation of people from the problem, inventing options for mutual gain, and openness to third-party assistance through the workshop.

“We are standing at a point in Pakistan's history when there is an urgent need to localise the concepts of peace and security,” said SFCG Country Director, Ammara Durrani while addressing the workshop's concluding session.

“Our local communities have indigenous solutions and a genuine social will to resolve conflicts through creative collaborations. We need to explore and harness this tremendous social capital”, she added.

The SFCG country director and SDPI executive director distributed certificates amongst the participants at the end of the workshop. —APP