A mockery of minority rights

Political and religious leaders in this country never tire of paying lip service to minorities' rights but remain hesitant to help secure them. A case in point is the 2014 verdict of the Supreme Court resulting from a suo motu notice taken by the then chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani in the wake of a Peshawar church bombing that left 100 people dead. The verdict requiring the government to establish National Council for Minorities was consigned to the cold storage. Once again, the court had to intervene. In January 2019, former CJ directed formation of a commission to oversee the implementation of court's nearly five-year-old judgment that called for setting up of the council to monitor implementation of minorities' rights and safeguards as provided by the constitution. The proposed council was also to make policy recommendations to federal and provincial governments.

A one-man commission headed by a respected public figure, Dr Shoaib Suddle, was mandated to draft a bill for the establishment of the council. But the Ministry of Religious Affairs chose to ignore both the court order and the efforts the commission had made preparing an exhaustive report after consultations with federal and provincial governments, civil society organizations and, of course, representatives of minority communities. It went ahead to announce a minorities commission on its own. Dr Suddle has now approached the apex court complaining of non-cooperation by the religious affairs ministry in violation of the undertaking given to the court, which amounts to contempt of the court. Irrespective of legal aspects of the case, the ministry's decision is deeply flawed on several accounts. As pointed out by the commission in its report, it is not a statutory body like the National Commission on the Status of Women Ordinance, 2000; the National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan Act, 2012; and the National Commission on the Rights of Child Act, 2017. Furthermore, it is not in conformity with Pakistan's international commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The way the ministry has behaved in defiance of the apex court's directive creates suspicions about its intentions. Its recently announced council - actually is being described as a commission - without statutory authority means it is not really interested in addressing minorities' communities' concerns, such as discrimination in jobs, enforced conversions, and desecration of their places of worship. According to sceptics, another reason could be aversion to losing control over lucrative positions in the Auqaf Department and many pricy evacuee properties attached to minorities' places of worship. Whatever the reason, it is too serious an issue to be left to the whims of a ministry and its associates. It surely does not look good for the government that the apex court yet again has been called upon to help do the right thing.