An All Pakistan Student Leaders Conference on Peacebuilding in Campuses was held in Lahore for six days (19-24 July).

The historic event was attended by more than 70 student leaders belonging to all mainstream student organizations and existing student councils from every province and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Various themes such as peacebuilding and student politics: revisiting the past, linkages between political parties and student politics, youth and extremism, translating national youth policy into action, alternative models of student activism, women leadership in campuses, provincial autonomy and the internal sources of conflict in Pakistan, manifestos of student organizations and group work and code of conduct for student politics.

The conference was highly appreciated by the participants as it started a process of national dialogue and reconciliation among future leaders of Pakistan. For many of these otherwise well-informed activists, this was an eye-opener to hear not only their opponents but also those who have not been heard before. However, one encouraging aspect was that because of the political maturity and training acquired during this six-day conference there was no clashes even among die-hard opponents. It is hoped that the participating student leaders will initiate similar reconciliation process within their provinces and regions.