RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Arts Council (RAC) on Thursday arranged a poster making competition to mark World Peace Day.

As many as 113 posters prepared by the students of 15 secondary schools from the Potohar region were put on display at the RAC auditorium. The poster competition was organised by the RAC in collaboration with Islamabad Devcom Centennial Leo Club (IDCLC) and Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan).

Addressing on the occasion, MPA Lubna Rehan Pirzada said the Punjab government had taken several steps to groom youth through variety of initiatives and programmes.

“Youth cannot be engaged in peace restoring activities until they are taught the actual meaning of peace our religion has defined. The creative pursuits would certainly lead the youth to well-groomed citizens,” she said.

Member National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Chaudhary Mohammad Shafiq said without ensuring the fundamental human rights to every citizen, peace could not be restored and maintained in our society.

He said our religion Islam has defined the rights of every citizen and some are reflected in the universal charters, we only need to implement these charters and practice the actual Islamic teachings.

Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed said the competition was organized to inculcate passion for peace among the secondary school students through creative pursuits.

He said that peace was not the absence of conflicts but the acceptance of difference of opinion, ethnicity and religion.

He said that the youth need to understand the realities and connotations of the actual social and religious theories and practices.

Riffat Ara Baig, the coordinator of the peace posters competition, said the students have shown their creative skills and thoughts in meaningful compositions.

Haris Munir, the president of Islamabad Devcom Centennial Leo Club, said the club was formed to groom the young leadership and engage them in the community services and environmental management.

We had been declared as the best Leo Club in the Lions Clubs International this year based on the activities that our members had organised for the youth.

He said the tradition of engaging youth in different activities would continue in the days to come.

RAC Resident Director Waqar Ahmed said that there was a need to give attention to the youth so they could explore their talent.

He said that the RAC was providing platform to the young and old artists to present the soft image of the country in the world.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2017