A
delegation from Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, led by Mr. Azmat Ali Khan
(Assistant Professor, also entitled by NDU as Ambassador of AWKUM), Department
of Political Science, along with students Miss Sireen (M.A. Psychology), Mr.
Faizan (BS International Relations), attended a week long workshop entitled, “3rd
National Harmony Workshop, (18-22 March, 2019), arranged by National Defence
University (NDU) Islamabad. Delegations from all over Pakistani Universities
attended the workshop. The sole purpose of workshop was to highlight that
Pakistan is a multi-ethnic society, alienated geographically among separate
regions, with different cultures, languages, and socio-economic structures like
many other countries around the globe. Since many years, Pakistan is going
through serious internal and external security challenges. It is realized that
lack of national unity and integration among the federating units is one of the
major weaknesses that has accentuated these challenges. Pakistan needs a
national platform to bring her divergent linguistic and geographic groups
together for some common national goals.
Since
there was no such mechanism where the universities could be engaged in such an
exercise, NDU realized its national responsibility and launched a project
“MANZIL E MURAD” in 2015, which proved a success in achieving its goal. 2nd
workshop was organized in 2017. In continuation to this national project,
dedicated and continued effort is pre-requisite to build the required degree of
cohesion and common understanding among the people of all the federating units.
Universities and institutions being the think tanks can play an important role
in facilitating national harmony and integration.
Objectives
of the workshop included; to enhance national harmony and integration, generate
a sense of ownership among the academic community of all federating units
regarding national issues, to improve national pride and awareness among
university students and academia on security environment and role of Pakistan
Armed Forces towards stability and peace in Pakistan, and to share common
understanding regarding the possible solutions to existing problems in
Pakistan. The cleavages along the lines of traditional attachments are
fundamental to any plural societies as in Pakistan. Expert speakers from the
federal government and military experts talked on the said issues and national
security responding to multiple questions asked by the participants.
