judgment to protect minorities’ rights
Zubair Qureshi
Speakers at a conference “Challenge of Implementing Article 20 (Freedom of Religion) of the Constitution of Pakistan” raised their serious concerns over the lack of seriousness on part of the federal and provincial governments to address human rights violations, and called upon the government to take concrete measures to protect religious freedom and minorities’ rights in accordance with the directions of the Judgment issued by Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, then Chief Justice of Pakistan in 2014.
The conference was organized by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the landmark judgment on minorities’ rights (SMC No. 1/2014).
Executive Director of CSJ, Peter Jacob said that the level of compliance with the court’s orders has not improved from 25% in the past nine years.
The apex court issued over 89 subsequent orders besides the seven original orders passed in 2014, however, they remained unimplemented for lack of policy actions. He added that the judgment, if implemented, has the potential to improve the overall governance, and address institutional dysfunction.
Farhatullah Babar said that the state structure promotes biases on the grounds of religion which reflects in discriminatory provisions in the constitution of Pakistan which causes inequality of rights among majority and minority citizens. It is disappointing that governments have failed to adhere to jillani judgment regarding minorities’ rights, therefore, the government needs to pass a bill to establish a statutory national commission for minorities’ rights without any further delay.
Dr Aslam Khaki said that religion is misinterpreted by certain elements for their vested interests, therefore they resist religiously-neutral textbooks, interfaith marriages, and policy reforms to prevent misuse of blasphemy laws, stop child marriages, and criminalize forced faith conversions. The government needs to invest in efforts to promote religious tolerance and religious freedom. Shafique Chaudhry said that religion is used as a tool for political gains which results in influencing mindsets and causing radicalization in society. The political parties need to introduce policy reforms to address the outstanding issues, and stop patronizing the elements involved in human rights violations against minority groups.
Analyst, Zaigham Khan stated that the blasphemy laws, particularly Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, were often misused to settle personal vendettas or to target minorities under the guise of religious outrage.HR defender, Tahira Abdullah referred to her research reports (published 2015 and 2020) on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa public sector curricula and textbooks, documenting huge discrimination against Pakistani religious minorities and women, along with her recommendations. She cited her published work on issues pertaining to the blasphemy laws and reiterated urgent measures needed to address them.
