Promoting peace: Youth advocate sectarian, interfaith harmony

Use car stickers to spread message of peace, tolerance.

Members of the youth are promoting an atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance between citizens following different religions as well as various sects of Islam.

“There is a need to foster sectarian and inter-faith harmony in the country to prevent extremists and their sympathisers from dividing the nation,” said Zenub Babar, a youth volunteer representing Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA) on the occasion of the last day of the “Car stickers for peace” on Monday.

A press release stated that PYCA, in association with Citizen Awareness Programme, launched the initiative aimed at promoting civic responsibility, peace and tolerance in society.

Under the initiative, stickers especially designed for vehicles, were developed. Each sticker bore a key message urging the public to exhibit respect, tolerance and civic responsibility.

Elaborating on the campaign, Ammar Zafarullah, country manager of PYCA, said four key messages were developed for the campaign.

The messages focused on themes relating to promotion of religious harmony, peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and civic responsibility, he added.

The messages on the stickers were written in both Urdu and Roman scripts.

Youth volunteers from the twin cities participated in the two-day campaign during which stickers were pasted on 1,000 vehicles in the federal capital, including public transport vans, buses and taxis.

“Through this campaign we hope to reach-out to the masses, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity and religious affiliation and create a demand for peace at the grass-roots level,” said Afshar Iqbal, communications and advocacy manager at PYCA.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2015.