‘Say Peace,’ a two-day workshop on ‘Peace and Conflict Resolution,’ organised by the Interfaith League against Poverty (I-LAP), concluded on Saturday evening in which workers and volunteers from all regional offices of the organisation participated. The objective of the training was to create awareness about the conflicts existing in the society on the basis of ethnicity as well as religion, which are causing hatred and violence and the ways and means to defuse and dissolve those conflicts by promoting tolerance, respect for humanity and harmony to bring about peace in the society. During the two-day workshop the participants on the first day covered trainings on peace modules, while the second day comprised of thorough discussions and presentations on case studies from the field, practical peace interventions and research theories applied throughout the world in conflict hit areas. Training sessions were taken by the trainers of national and international stature, including of I-LAP Chairman Sajid Ishaq Sandhu, who deliberated at length about the strategies, ways and means to handle these highly sensitive issues and work in a way that should pave the way for promotion of peace, resolution of conflicts and for the dissemination of practical ideas for peace including its development aspects. I-LAP, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has been striving to promote harmony among different faiths and religions for last 15 years and has established itself as an anchor of peace and conflict resolution organisation. Besides its focus on combating the menace of violence through training and education, it struggles to root out and resolve basic causes behind conflicts through practical intervention for providing better livelihood to the people. Having it as an integral programme, I-LAP’s efforts for peace features development of a peace museum, conducting evaluation and research into peace process and engaging the masses into tranquillity oriented trainings and workshops. I-LAP Chairman Sajid Ishaq Sandhu stressed the need of a lasting peace in Pakistan and in the world at large and reiterated the fact that a war can be justified on no grounds. He said: “In very truth there are no interest or reasons, however, legitimate those may appear, that can justify war.”
