Lahore: February 19, 2016. (Pervez Yousaf) During the annual planning session of the Council for Interfaith Dialogue Pakistan (CFID) all the board members unanimously urged national media to promote interreligious harmony so that tolerance and peace may grow in the society. The planning session was chaired by Pir Shafaat Rasool and presided by Fr. Francis Nadeem OFM Cap which was held in a local hotel, here at Lahore. The Christian members expressed regret and concern about a religious programme aired during the morning transmissions of a private TV channel in which the participants denounce Christianity as a fake religion. They said nobody has the right to desecrate any religion individually or publically which also is the violation of the National Action Plan. They further said that every religion has its own teachings with difference of opinion than the others but nobody is to pronounce the other religions as “fake” or “wrong”. It was also requested to all Muslim individuals, media and institutions not to use the Urdu word “ESAI” for the Christians and instead of that a Christian should be called a “MASIHI”. This discussion was a part of the second phase of this annual session of the CFID about the current situation of the country. In the first part of the session the previous programmes of the council were reviewed and highly appreciated by all the participants. Then the coordinator of the council Fr. Francis Nadeem presented the detail of proposed programmes for the year 2016. These programmes are prepared for children, youth, men and women to promote peace and interreligious harmony and to build a culture of tolerance and acceptance in the society. The proposed programmes were consisting of speech competitions, art exhibitions and essay writing competitions for the children. Programmes for the youth are inclusive of seminar on Pakistan Day and peace rallies/walks from time to time. For women conferences and seminars are proposed on the occasions of women’s and mothers’ day. Other proposed programmes are inclusive of various programmes of interfaith harmony on national and religious occasions during the year. The Muslim participants suggested arranging lectures on interfaith harmony in government schools, colleges, universities and Madrassas by the Islamic and Christian scholars and educationists. They also suggested to contact teachers of female Islamic schools and to induct them in the women’s wing of the council. Muslim, Christian and Hindu members jointly stated that media is the most influential channel in every society and must play its role impartially without representing a specific segment of the society or extremist organization. It was unanimously agreed to hold meetings with the anchor persons of the tv channels, editors of the national print media, religious magazines and political leadership asking them to pay attention to this national cause of promoting peace and interreligious harmony and to discourage all efforts that damage the solidarity of Pakistan. The annual session which began with the prayers by Muslim, Christian and Hindu representatives of the council followed by welcome address by Fr. Francis Nadeem was attended by the directors of the council Mufti Syed Ashiq Hussain, Fr. Inayat Bernard, secretary of the council Pervez Yousaf and executive members including Allama Asghar Arif Chishti, Mian Khurram Javed Naqshbandi, Malik Shahbaz Awan, Mansoor Ahmed Khan, Syed Waqarul-Hussain Naqvi, Asghar Masih, Dr. Badar Munir Saifi, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Naqshbandi, Shahid Anthony, Fr. Qaisar Feroz OFM Cap, Br. Adnan Kashif OFM Cap, Ejaz Safdar, Anwar Ullah Khan, Bhagat Lal Khokhar, Allama Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi and Professor Farooq Ahmed Saeedi.