Commission suggests steps to prevent Karak temple-like incidents

ISLAMABAD: The one-man Commission on Implementation of Minorities Rights, constituted by the Supreme Court, has compiled its seventh report, suggesting corrective measures, including effective legislation, to avoid Karak temple-like tragedies in future as well as ensuring peaceful co-existence in the country.

“The Supreme Court may direct the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony to process the draft bill on National Council for Minorities and get it enacted as law in the Parliament at the earliest,” Commission Chairman Dr Shoaib Suddle said in an eight page report, which was available with APP.

He added the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training should address the concerns of minority communities in the context of single national curriculum in close cooperation with the one-man commission.

The chairman highlighted that there were complaints received from the minorities regarding presence of substantial religious content in subjects like English, Social Studies and General Science, which the students of minority religious communities were not obliged to study under Article 22 of the Constitution.

He said the commission took up the matter of under-preparation single national curriculum with the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood.

There had also been meetings with Secretary Education Farah Hamid Khan and Joint Educational Adviser Muhammad Rafiq Tahir who assured the commission that single national curriculum would be consensus-based, and all stakeholders, including representatives of religious minorities, would be consulted before finalising the curriculum, Dr Suddle said.

He added: “The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) should provide necessary information on format (A to F), Annex-D, to the commission at the earliest so that comments or recommendations sought by the Supreme Court are submitted in time.”

He explained that the ETPB in its letter dated January 25 submitted to the commission willfully ignored the commission’s format comprising six (A-F) tables (Annex-D), thus evading the details sought therein. “After thorough analysis, the commission is of the view that the ETPB Act is outdated and needs to be revisited for necessary amendments to make it relevant to converting ETPB into a corporate body that could deliver the required aims and objects efficiently, fairly and transparently, in close cooperation with the minority communities,” Dr Suddle added.

He mentioned that it was also prayed in the report that the ETPB should be directed to get involved in the reconstruction of the desecrated Teri Mandir/Samaadhi and cooperate with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government for efficient implementation of the directions given by the apex court from time to time.

The chairman added: “Out of 365 Mandirs (temples), only 13 (3.6 per cent) are being managed by the ETPB, leaving responsibility of 65 (17.8 per cent) with the Hindu community, and practically abandoning the rest 287 (78.6 per cent) to the land mafias.”

Dr Suddle concluded that the ETPB, with its staff spread in all corners of Pakistan and huge paraphernalia, was managing only 31 worship places out of a total of 470 i.e. just 6.6 per cent.

He noted that it would be pertinent to enquire as to what amount the ETPB was spending on the management of the 31 religious places annually.