HRCP stresses need to have ‘National Commission for Minorities’

Islamabad:Prominent human rights leaders and activists vociferously demanded establishing an independent empowered ‘National Commission for Minorities’ in Pakistan to safeguard the rights of religious minorities who are facing multiple social issues because of their religious beliefs.

They were speaking at a one-day ‘Round-table meeting on the need for a National Commission for Minorities’ organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at a local hotel Thursday morning.

One participant said that the ‘Minorities Commission’ placed under the supervision of Ministry of Religious Affairs is utterly wrong and stressed that this Commission was supposed to send its observations and recommendations directly to the Prime Minister.

“A ‘Minority Commission’ being governed by the Religious Ministry, which mainly deals with the issues of majority Muslim population, could never be independent and impartial while dealing with the issues being faced by religious minority communities,” he added.

“At the same time,” he stressed, “the inclusion of majority Muslim community members in the commission is also necessary because the Muslim members of the Commission would have direct and easy access to majority Muslim community and they can make efforts to change their perception towards the minority communities.”

Senator Farhatullah Babar, while taking up a question raised by a participants regarding ‘Single Curriculum’, pointed out that the issue was made controversial not by anyone other than Chela Ram of the one-man Commission on Minorities when he agreed to separate curriculum for minorities, which made it difficult to make a uniform and inclusive curriculum.

Senator Farhatullah Babar also pointed that one certain community in the country still remains the most vulnerable and they are facing extreme discrimination and violence, which is worst of its kind. “Their plight need to be frequently and repeatedly highlighted and agitated for protection of their rights.

Dr Shoaib Suddle, the Chairman of the ‘One-Man Commission on Minority Rights’, established by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2019, while expressing his views at the meeting said that he himself was not aware that he has been made the Chairman of this Commission and received the information while he was out of country.

“I was in the House of Lords when I received this information to which I myself was somewhat surprised. However, he said that if Pakistan needs to make its position credible in the UN then it must need to make this ‘National Commission for Minorities’ on the basis of Paris Principals.

“It is, indeed, embarrassing that Afghanistan has a right of vote on human rights issues in the United Nations but unfortunately and surprisingly Pakistan do not enjoy this status,” Dr Shoaib Suddle said.

He said that the Ministry of Minorities Affairs should be a separate and independent Ministry, entrusted with responsibilities to handle issues and problems faced by the minority communities of Pakistan.

The prevailing system is rotten and is meant specifically ‘not to deliver’. As such, there is a dire need to re-do this whole system, he added.

Ms Hina Jilani, while participating on-line from Lahore said that while considering ‘Paris Principals’ on human rights there is need for corrections in the system to make it effective and compatible.

“The prevailing human rights conditions being confronted by the minority communities in Pakistan is creating a bitterness in society, which is alarmingly increasing and is most worrisome. This needs to be taken seriously,” Miss Jilani said.

She also was critical of ‘religious mobs’ emerging so rapidly in the society and stressed that these groups need to be dealt with in the legal and constitutional manner and not by showing leniency or appeasement towards them.

While concluding the day’s proceedings the Secretary-General of HRCP, Haris Khaleeq said that today’s meeting was the launch of a country-wide campaign for promotion and protection of human rights of minority communities in Pakistan.

“The HRCP has been trying and will continue to try to help and play our role in legislation process aimed towards providing and protecting rights of minority communities. Such forums should be established which may promote inclusivity of each and every segment of the society,” Haris Khaleeq said.