Pakistan: ''Demand To Establish Minority Rights Commissions''

The South Asia Partnership-Pakistan has demanded to built an institution of commissions on minority rights at provincial and national.

It will help meliorate the condition of human rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. It was also stipulated that it should be an independent organization with fiscal and executive powers which could also analyze the laws and policies causing biasness against religious minorities.

SAP-PK also requested the Government of Pakistan to guarantee religious liberty and other primary rights of minorities as assured under the national and international obligations. Throughout a press briefing at a local hotel on Monday, SAP-PK’s National Coordinator for Human Rights Fund-III (HRF-III) Hameed Gondal said that the organization had already ongoing to execute a plan “HRF-III” aspiring to amplify the security and promoting rights of expression, assembly, association and thought including religious sovereignty of minorities all over the state.

Articulating worry over the condition of minorities, he shared that it was awful to say that harassment of minorities in Pakistan was a major issue, but the matter was not being taken critically by the government. He said “the Constitution of Pakistan in its introductory chapter clearly said that no person would be prevented from or be hindered in doing that which was not prohibited by the law; and no person would be compelled to do that which the law did not require him to do.”

Citing a number of examples of essential rights as assured in the Constitution of Pakistan, he said the Chapter One-Fundamental Rights and Principles of Policy said that laws inconsistent with or in derogation of Fundamental Rights to be void. Similarly, Articles 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the Constitution grant freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom of speech to every citizen in Pakistan regardless of any distinction. Article 20 of this Constitution allows professing religion and managing religious institutions.

Speaking about the international commitments, he added that Pakistan had approved the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which held the State to make sure the defense of religious sovereignty and other essential rights such as right of expression, association, assembly and thought.

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