ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will open today, Saturday, a two-day summit on girls’ education in Muslim communities, with over 150 dignitaries from 44 Muslim and other friendly states taking part in the conference.
The global summit, hosted by the Pakistani education ministry, aims to address the challenges and opportunities in advancing girls’ education across Muslim communities worldwide, according to Pakistan’s foreign office.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will inaugurate the conference and deliver a keynote address at the opening session. He will reaffirm the nation’s commitment to promoting girls’ education and gender equality.
Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui this week said the primary aim of the conference is to stress the implementation of the Islamic message, which clearly states that both men and women have the right to education.
“By promoting girls’ education, we can build better homes, a better society and a stronger nation,” he said at a media briefing, adding that an “Islamabad Declaration” will be announced at the end of the summit that would outline decisive steps to transform girls’ education in Islamic countries.
Several dignitaries, including Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha and Egyptian Grand Mufti Dr. Nazir Mohamed Ayad, have arrived in Pakistan to attend the summit.
Pakistan has also extended an invitation to Afghanistan to join representatives from other Islamic countries and attend the conference in Islamabad.
“We have extended an invitation to Afghanistan to participate in this conference and hope that their delegation will attend as it is a very important neighboring country,” Siddiqui said.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, at least 1.4 million Afghan girls have been denied access to secondary education, according to a report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released in August last year.
Siddiqui said everyone respects tribal customs and cultures, but all such practices must align with Islamic values in Muslim countries, adding that nothing holds precedence over them.
“In Islam, there is no justification for restricting women’s education,” he added.
Pakistan to open today two-day summit on girls’ education in Muslim countries
https://arab.news/8jhdy
Pakistan to open today two-day summit on girls’ education in Muslim countries
- The conference’s aim is to stress Islam’s message that both men, women have right to education
- Over 150 dignitaries from 44 Muslim and other friendly states are taking part in the conference
Related
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
