LAHORE: In the near future, the condition of religious minorities in Pakistan would greatly improve as a result of effective steps taken by the government, says Punjab Minister for Human Rights and Minority Affairs Ijaz Alam Augustine.

He was addressing a convention organised by the People’s Commission for Minorities Rights (PCMR) in connection with the National Minority Day, which falls on Aug 11 every year.

The Aug 11 address by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Constituent Assembly forms the basis of this day where he stressed freedom for all religious minorities.

Convention held in connection with National Minority Day

Mr Augustine said Prime Minister Imran Khan was committed to protecting rights of religious minorities as equal citizens of the country. He said the PM had been ‘courageous’ enough to speak against the forced conversions as well as incorrect allegations under Section 295-C PPC (blasphemy law).

He said the PM was also working to promote religious tourism where all heritage sites would be fully protected and preserved and all places of worship over 100 years old would be provided with facilities. “Opening the Katarpur Corridor was one such step the PM had taken”.

The minister said this year witnessed a considerable reduction in number of blasphemy cases reported in Punjab.

“Last year, there were 100 cases while this year only two have been reported so far.”

He said discrimination and hatred towards religious minorities were the result of some extremists but the state never promoted this radicalisation nor did it take part in it.

He said the government was also making efforts for the benefit of prisoners belonging to minority communities.

“On every festival of all religious minorities, we will have some prisoners released, just as they are released on Eid every year. Selected prisoners from the Christian community will be released on Christmas and Easter while the Hindu prisoners will released be Holi and Diwali.”

The human rights minister said they had now introduced the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita for non-Muslim students in place of Islamiat and had removed ethics as a subject.

Speaking about employment opportunities for the minority communities, he said Punjab, which had around 171 technical training centres, would encourage the young people from the minority communities to complete their skill development after which they would be awarded a grant of Rs0.5m to set up businesses.

“Model villages are being made currently Youhanabad for the Christians and a Hindu village in Rahim Yar Khan is being turned into model ‘basti’ (settlement),” Mr Augustine said.

Peter Jacob, executive president of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and chairperson of People’s Commission for Minority Rights (PCMR), spoke earlier about the challenges faced by non-Muslim communities.

“The demographics of the non-Muslims taken in the last census have been stopped at the order of the PM and no one knows the reason which should be made public and fixed. The amendments in the Christian Marriage Act were still pending.”

Mr Jacob said employment quota was being implemented properly.

A monitoring commission must be formed to oversee whether the laws on minorities were being implemented, he said.

Speaking to Dawn, Mr Jacob mentioned the Shoaib Suddle Commission, which was meant to oversee the implementation of the seven points directed by the former CJP Tasadduq Hussain Jillani, who took suo motu notice in 2014.

Retired Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal said in the Aug 11 speech, social justice and equal citizens’ rights were highlighted by Mr Jinnah.

“Those who are in the majority now should not forget that they used to be in the minority at one point,” she said.

Professor Kalyan Singh from the Sikh community said it was sad the state did not even want to own the August 11 speech today.

Dr Rubina Feroze said when there was a gap between thoughts and reflections, social justice became impaired.

Human Rights Watch country director and lawyer Saroop Ijaz said if there was any kind of social contract for the country, especially regarding human rights, the August 11 speech was one such thing.

“This document sums up everything,” he said. About the Kashmir issue, he added that if it was supported it should be done so on the basis of human rights, not religion.

“Look at what fighting on the basis of religion has done to India,” he said. “It shows its feeble attempt at secularism and has given rise to an extremist Hindutva ideology.

The convention was attended by civil society, parliamentarians, activists, human rights workers, religious community representatives, etc.

The prominent among them were Tariq Gill (PML-N MPA), Naveed Amir Jeeva (MNA), Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad (grand imam of Badshahi Mosque), Shahid Nadeem, Michelle and Cecil Chaudhry Jr.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2019