Rights activists demand amending ‘discriminatory articles’ of constitution

A march for the minorities’ rights would be organised on Friday, August 11, at the Frere Hall to highlight systematic oppression, discrimination, marginalisation and violence against religious minorities.

The organisers of the march said it would be the first march of its kind in Karachi. Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, they demanded all discriminatory clauses and articles in the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, be repealed. They called for amending the Articles 41(2) and 91(3) to make the offices of the president and prime minister equally obtainable for all the citizens on merit.

Speaking at the press conference, Pastor Ghazala Rafique said rights activists had come together to initiate the first Minority Rights March.

She said people who did not belong to the majority religion were persecuted every day in Pakistan.

“We see increasing attacks of discrimination and violence against Christian and Hindu communities, we see young and underage girls from these faiths being forcibly converted and married - against their will,” she said, adding that people of the minority faiths faced violence and discrimination every day and the large looming threat of the misuse of blasphemy law caused fear and insecurity in them.

The organisers demanded putting an end to religiously motivated crimes including abductions, harassment, forced marriages and rape of women and girls of religious minorities. All Political parties should support and unanimously pass legislation to curb and penalise forced conversion of faith and set up parameters to determine legitimate conversion to any faith. Laws pertaining to minorities must be made after consultation with women leaders from the respective minority communities, it was demanded.

The organisers also demanded protection of communal and worship places of all religious minorities with adequate measures and creation of minority protection cells in all major towns and districts.

A centralised digital data system of worship places be created to safeguard communal properties against illegal occupation, they demanded.

They demanded concrete actions to stop the abuse and misuse of blasphemy laws that would discourage people from taking the law into their own hands. Recurring false accusations of blasphemy particularly against members of minority communities and the resulting mob violence warranted effective mechanisms, the organisers said.

They also demanded an increase in the reserved seats for minorities in the National and provincial assemblies, Senate and district councils and other elected bodies. They also called for adding special reserved seats for women from minority communities.

The march’s organisers demanded restructuring the job quota model for reserved seats of minorities in all the provincial and federal agencies and creation of a special minority women quota as an affirmative action. They also demanded quota for religious minorities in law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

They also demanded elimination of all sort of hate speech and discriminatory material against religious minorities in the curriculum and including the August 11 speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah part of the curriculum at all the educational levels.

Ghazala said communal properties belonging to religious minorities under illegal encroachment or unlawfully sold/leased to third parties be given back to the communities concerned. The organisers also called for de-nationalise institutions that were founded by religious minorities and handing over their management to their founding organisations or trusts. Those who attended the press conference included Sikh Council of Pakistan Patron-in-chief Sardar Ramesh Singh and Sheema Kermani.