The Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET) in collaboration with Shaoor Foundation organized 2-day group discussion on “Strengthening Peace and Tolerance at the Universities”. Faculty members from different universities participated in the discussion and expressed their views and opinion on the subject. Presenting his views, Prof. Dr. Vali Uddin, Vice Chancellor SSUET, said, “Teaching is not the single duty of the universities, but they should also participate in the formation of a good society. We are the followers of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan whose ideology was to build a perfect society through character building of the youth. Aligarh Muslim University, founded by him, prepared a brigade of well-groomed youth who brought a revolutionary change in the society. They spread all over the subcontinent and paved way for the independent state for the Muslims in the South Asia. Ultimately, Pakistan came into existence because of their untiring efforts. Sir Syed University believe in preparing an effective and functional leadership through character building and technology based scientific education. If importance was not given to the grooming of the youth, it may severely affect the society.” Expressing his views, Director Programme, Shaoor Foundation, Raja Shoaib said that the root cause of intolerance is ignorance, lack of knowledge and understanding including fear of other cultures, nations and religion. Bias and prejudice are also the reasons behind intolerance. Stress tends to make a majority of the people become intolerant. In this scenario, universities need to motivate students to take initiatives to work with others despite having differences of opinion. Culture of dialogue should be promoted through organizing debates, seminars and other student led initiatives.
