In August 2023, a mob of hundreds of angry Muslims stormed a Christian neighborhood in Jaranwala, near the megacity of Faisalabad, causing widespread destruction. With your support, our Pakistani nehemiah team was one of the few aid organizations on the ground to help wherever it could.
Once again, the question arose: what could contribute sustainably to a more peaceful understanding between the many different religious groups?
The idea of a “peace conference” was born –
To take the first step as Christians to invite people to live together more peacefully in society.
Since August 2023, we have been working to inspire people from politics, religion and society with this idea. The response was overwhelming! We were even able to win over the parliament of Sindh province. Sindh is one of Pakistan’s four provinces and is heavily populated with 55 million inhabitants.
The fact that a parliament, including its chairman and deputy chairman, backs a conference organized by an NGO and also acts as a co-organizer is unprecedented.
THE PEACE CONFERENCE TOOK PLACE ON 5 MAY WITH NUMEROUS GUESTS.
Many politicians were present.
The Chairman of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, Syed Awais Qadir Shah, attended the conference as the main speaker and made a moving plea for peaceful coexistence in Pakistani society. His deputy Anthony Naveed emphasized the crucial role of a stable democracy in promoting religious tolerance and social coexistence in Pakistan.
In addition to the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and several MPs, the Minister for Religious Affairs, Riaz Hussain Shirazi, the Minister for Women’s Welfare, Shahnila Sher Ali, the Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, Ali Khursheedi, the Turkish Consul General in Karachi, Cemal Sango, the Malaysian Consul General Herman Hardynata Ahmad, the Iranian Consul General Hasan Nooryan, Faisal Edhi from the Edhi Trust and Ms. Lamm from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Pakistan gave short speeches.
High-ranking representatives of the religions were also present, including various leaders of the Parsi, Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Bahai religious communities. They addressed the gathering and engaged in many bilateral discussions. In this way, relationships were built and mutual mistrust and prejudices were broken down. At the end of the meeting, candles were lit together to express hope, peace, joy and love.
Public response
Media representatives and television correspondents were present in large numbers, and the conference was covered extensively in many newspapers and on national television stations throughout the country.
We are surprised, thrilled and very grateful how an initial impulse has triggered such a huge wave and moved the whole country. This is encouraging and is not least the fruit of many years of faithful work and service to people on a small scale by our Pakistani team. Without this long-standing, good reputation, such an event could not have taken place so successfully.
What was achieved?
Relationships were built, prejudices were broken down and mutual respect was shown. It remains to be seen what will come of this. As a novelty, the Chairman of the Sindh Parliament, Syed Awais Qadir Shah, announced the establishment of a permanent parliamentary “Committee for Minorities” to protect and strengthen the rights of minorities.
A number of concrete proposals came from the ranks of the conference as to how this promising start can be put into practice. From a conference for women to projects with children, further proposals were submitted. In any case, nehemia trust Pakistan would like to see a continuation of these meetings. shaping peace is a marathon, not a sprint – so we still need your loyal support!
We ask for your generous donations to cover the costs of this conference. We hope that we can fulfill the expectations we have now set for ourselves and look forward to continuing to support this peace work together with you!
Thank you very much!
