KARACHI: `The Pakistani nation has rejected extremism and terrorism. All minorities have equal rights and freedom in the country, and academicians and students have a responsibility of promoting the soft image of Pakistan. We aim to promote peace through diversity,` said Sindh`s Education Minister Jam Mehtab Dahar on the second day of the conference on `Diversity and Peace: Challenges to SocialDiscourse` organised by Karachi University`s faculty of social sciences.

Different scholars and researchers presented their papers on the subject. Pakistan Study Centre director Prof Dr Anwar Shaheen said Pakistan was proudly declared as an ideological state, created with an ideal to provide safe experimental ground for the Muslims of India to practise their religion and culture.

Assistant professor at KU`s Geography department Dr Salman Zubair and Assistant Professor atKU`s Computer Science department Syed Asim Ali while presenting their paper said that the public transport system is a serious but ignored social challenge in Karachi.

`The city hosts more than 20 million people and is ranked the seventh most populated city in the world but the public transport sector of the city is not satisfactory,` it was said.

KU`s History department`s Assistant Prof Dr Mohammad Moiz Khan and Maryum Urooj Khan while presenting their paper saidthat education was not only the process of acquiring information but it also ensured transfer of values.

`It enables us to develop acceptance which promotes harmony in one`s self. In the modern world, information is very easily accessible and sharing of one`s thoughts is not as much a challenge as it used to be, it was said.

Presenting his research paper on `Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia` Syed Jazib Shamim of KU`s History department said the nuclear arms race in the subcontinent was initi-ated by India having evil designs of disintegrating Pakistan and acquiring regional supremacy.

`The 1.5 billion people of India and Pakistan are at the mercy of one irresponsible decision of the extremist government of India,` he added, while criticising the role of the international community in this regard, calling it hypocritical since he maintained that the international community didn`t take any practical measure to stop India acquiring nuclear capability but exerted maximum possible pressures on Pakistanto halt its nuclear programme, which was highly biased and pro-India.

Director, Centre for Excellence in Women Studies at KU Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah alongside Dr Shagufta Nasreen presented their paper on gender-based violence.

Dr Mohammad Ali, Associate Professor at KU`s department of Political Science, Dr Arif Ali Khan, Tayyaba Tehseen, Mehboob-urRehman from University of Peshawar and Dr Syeda Sadia from G.C. Women University also read papers.