National Commission for Inter-religious Dialogue & Ecumenism (NCIDE) was established in 1985 by Pakistan's Catholic Bishops. The organisation has initiated programmes for the Muslims and Christian communities to foster peace and harmony.
International and domestic events have made the work of NCIDE ever more crucial, in particular the episodes of violence against Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan and that have occurred after the events of 9/11 in the US, the 7/7 bombing in London, the Iraq war, blasphemic caricatures, and lecture of Pope Benedict XVI. These incidents have made it easy for extremists and other elements to abuse religion for their personal agenda, and Pakistan remains a land of religious violence.
NCIDE mainly targets women, young and children, as well as religious leaders from Islam and Christianity. The organisation believes that there are more and more people from different faiths who wish to live in peace, therefore NCIDE introduced a theme of joint celebration of religious festivals, such as Diwali and Holi of Hindus, Eid of Muslims, Easter and Christmas of Christians. At these celebrations like minded people are invited to understand other faiths. In addition, NCIDE has been organising conferences on peace and social harmony to raise awareness of religious minority rights and to build peaceful comunities.