Baba Farid, Guru Nanak spread peace, humanity, tolerance: Sarwar

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar on Wednesday said that Baba Fareed and Baba Guru Nanak spread message of peace, humanity and tolerance and we need to promote their teachings for establishing harmony in the world. He was addressing the inaugural session of Baba Fareed, Guru Nanak International Conference organized by Punjab University Department of Punjabi.

He said that Sikhs were generous and they were also helping us in various segments of life. He said that a Sikh philanthropist had donated water filtration plant, food machinery and donated Rs 25 million to Baba Guru Nanak chair.

PU Vice Chancellor Professor Niaz Ahmad, Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Dr Fazal Khalid, Pro VC Professor Dr Muhammad Saleem Mazhar, Head of Garanthi Sri Nankana Sahab, Giyani Dia Singh, Principal Oriental College Professor Dr Syed Muhammad Qamar Ali, Chairperson PU Department of Punjabi Professor Dr Nabeela Rehman, faculty members, students and a large member of scholars from country and abroad were present on the occasion.

Addressing the conference, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar said that the countries facing terrorism, extremism and culture of intolerance could not prosper. Therefore, he said, Pakistan government was curbing these challenges for development of the country. He said, "We were providing minorities with their due rights and they had complete religious freedom." He said that even having extremely sore relations with India, as she had changed status of Occupied Kashmir and imposed curfew in the area, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced to open Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh community on the eve of 550th birthday of Baba Guru Nanak and he fulfilled his promise. He said that Sikh community was standing shoulder to shoulder with Pakistani in foreign countries to protest against atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir. He said that if we followed the teachings of Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Up Him), Sufis and Baba Guru Nanak, all our quarrels would come to an end. However, he said, we did not learn any lesson from history. He said that the Muslims ruled the world as long as they were knowledgeable and they fell when they distanced themselves from knowledge. Sarwar said, "We must make collective efforts to promote Punjabi language." He said that PU would be made role model to promote Punjabi language and other universities would follow it. He said that the government was establishing Aab-e-Pak Authority and the person who would be found involved in installing substandard water filtration plant would be sentenced to two years imprisonment.