The government on Wednesday notified the formation of the National Paigham-e-Aman (Peace Message) Committee (NPAC), comprising clerics, religious leaders of non-Muslim communities and senior officials, in a bid to counter extremism, hate speech, terrorism and sectarianism.
Established by the Information Ministry, the NPAC would formulate a unified national stance against extremism and terrorism, promoting peace, harmony and religious moderation, and serve as a subcommittee of the National Committee on Narrative Building. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar would chair the NPAC, which includes Senator Hafiz Abdul Karim, Mufti Abdul Rahim, Allama Arif Hussain Wahidi, Pir Naqeebur Rehman, Allama Muhammad Hussain Akbar, and Muhammad Raghib Hussain Naeemi as members. Additionally, the committee includes Maulana Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Maulana Tayyab Punj Piri, Allama Ziaullah Shah Bukhari, Bishop Azad Marshal, Rajesh Kumar Hardasani, and Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora.
According to the notification, the director general of the Internal Publicity Wing of the Information Ministry would serve as secretary of the committee. It said the committee would finalize detailed terms of reference in its first meeting in alignment with those of National Committee on Narrative Building.
The National Committee on Narrative Building, notified earlier this month, is a 20-member body comprising the information ministers of all four provinces, GB and AJK, the federal information minister, representatives of the military, intelligence agencies, the foreign and I.T. ministries, and the PTA chairman. The national committee aims to tackle “information operation, formulation, dissemination, propagation and evaluation of [the] national narrative against the spread of terrorism [or] extremism through media, communication and cyber networks for smooth implementation of Revised National Action Plan 2021.”