Call to follow Quaid’s principles

LAHORE: The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Thursday organised an event to celebrate the contributions of Peter Jacob, who received Department of State's International Religious Freedom Award on the 25th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act 1998.

The event held at the Safma auditorium was joined by journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, and diplomats.

The speakers included Wajahat Masood, Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal, Clara Strandhoj, Head of Lahore, Consulate of UK, Karl Rogers, Public Affairs Officer, US Consulate, Arif Saeed, Honorary Consul of Germany in Lahore, Tanveer Jahan, Saroop Ijaz advocate, Allama Saddiq Azhar, Samson Salamat, and Rana Zulqarnain Advocate.

Clara Strandhoj said that the founding father of Pakistan Jinnah championed the ideals of tolerance, equality, and inclusion, so his vision must be followed as a guiding principle to strengthen laws and policies so that they can help to address hate crimes and religion-based violence with impunity, improve the implementation of human rights, and run the country in the right direction.

Karl Roger appreciated the dedicated efforts of Peter Jacob for human rights in general, and religious freedom in particular.

Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal congratulated Peter Jacob for this well-deserved recognition, and termed it a remarkable achievement for all Pakistanis. Tanveer Jahan, Amjad Saleem Minhas, Arif Saeed and Saroop Ijaz advocate also spoke on the occasion.