By Asim Shahzad
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that country has been the victim of terrorism and violent extremism, which not only targeted the general public, children, and security forces but also targeted political leaders like the former (late) Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who lost her life to terrorism.
Murad Ali Shah was addressing a two-day national conference organized by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) in collaboration with Sindh Assembly.
Sindh Chief Minister stressed for the implementation of SDG 16 with unified political will and robust parliamentary oversight is required to counter violent extremism and terrorism to ensure sustainable development. Peace is the only way forward to ensure the sustainability of any development program.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal emphasized the need for parliamentarians across all provincial assemblies to adopt SDGs as provincial development agenda and make joint efforts for establishing peace and counter violent extremism. He referred to the horrendous incident of Army Public School which occurred in 2014, taking the lives of many innocent children, and further said that besides all the political and ideological differences between all the political parties, a national action plan was opted as a national agenda by all the political parties in order to address the issue of violent extremism in Pakistan.
Deputy Speaker of National Assembly Qasim Sori said that the role of provincial assemblies in the promotion of peace is vital for sustainability and the proactive role of civil society, academia, and religious leaders is also very important. No society can flourish without peace and justice’ he stressed.
Deputy Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Jan also addressed the participant of the conference and said that to prevail in peace we need to focus on the Sustainable Development Goals, which is not only a global agenda/goal but a national vision for 2030. He further said that tangible solutions like the development of a detailed framework to address the SDGs are the key to achieving sustainability while acknowledging the efforts of the KP assembly as a pioneer in drafting the SDGs framework. The conference was attended by various parliamentary leaders, academicians, and members of various political parties from across the country.
Nusrat Sehar Abbasi also stressed women from all walks of life from households to public and private institutions. The provincial minister of women’s development in Sindh Ms. Shehla Raza stated that the role of women in parliamentary oversight of peacebuilding is very important and that women even in parliaments must fight to acquire this right.
