Dr Suddle commission on minorities rights meets

Islamabad: The first meeting of the Implementation Commission for protection of the minorities’ rights formed by the Supreme Court was held at the Federal Judicial Academy here on Thursday.

Dr Shoaib Suddle chaired the meeting on the enforcement of the court orders for the protection and enforcement of minorities’ rights.

The meeting was attended by government ministries and departments, members of civil society organisations and minority communities. Initiating the proceeding, Dr Shoaib Suddle outlined the specific orders given in the judgement in 2014 (PLD 2014 SC 699) by then Supreme Court chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, which required steps for inculcating social and religious harmony and tolerance through reforming education system, etc.; protecting religious minorities from social and physical threats, setting up institutions such as; National Commission for Minorities’ Rights, and introducing affirmative measures such as including and ensuring equal opportunities for economic progress. He regretted that the directives addressed to the federal and provincial governments had suffered neglect for four years on part of the government machinery.

He invited all government bodies to work in the manner that no excuses or hurdles should block implementation of the fundamental rights of minorities even if it takes finding some out of the box solutions.

Although the Supreme Court has mentioned the possibility of the extension of the mandate of the Implementation Commission, Dr. Suddle expressed his desire to finish the task assigned as early as possible.

He invited all stakeholders to make the task assigned by the Supreme Court a top priority. He said the equal and equitable rights of the minorities was a constitutional responsibility of all stakeholders, which couldn't be ignored any further.

The government officials representing provinces and departments gave a briefing on the status of implementation while the religious communities represented by eminent leaders and civil society activists were given the opportunity to express their point of view on issues faced by religious minorities and way forwards.

The commission will conduct meetings in all the provincial headquarters also to look deeper into the stringent problems and find solutions for effective implementation. The next meeting will be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Feb 7 to assess the status of implementation. The members of the committee assisting Shoaib Suddle Commission, advocate Saqib Jillani, Ramesh Kumar and additional attorney general of Pakistan Khurram Saeed and special adviser Peter Jacob also participated in the proceedings.

The commission encouraged the people having interest and competence to send their recommendations and proposals regarding implementation of the judgment on email: one.man.commission@gmail.com.