Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday held a constructive workshop to discuss the ways to safeguard worship places, particularly of minorities across the country.

The session was attended by representatives of the civil society, representatives of minorities, politicians, legal experts and others. They highlighted the issues being faced by minority class in the country. They said that even their religious places were not fully secured.

Social activist Tahira Abduallah said that the civil society should play a proactive role in this regard. She said that whenever any religious violence incident occurred in any part of the country, they should raise their voice against the incident. “They should not stop their efforts against such discriminations just after a formal protest or demonstration, instead they should follow it until its end,” she said.

Human rights activist Dr Farzana Bari said on the occasion that there was a dire need to promote tolerance among individuals and societies at each forum including academia, parliament, and in policymaking . The religious scholars can play the best role in this regard, she said.

Ruling party lawmaker Dr Ramaish Kumar, who also has moved the Hindu Marriage Bill in the parliament, said that being a minority’ leader, he had tried to work for the rights of minority communities. “I took an initiative to devise a mechanism to register Hindu community at each police station across the country,” he said, adding that the work on this strategy was underway and would be finalised soon.

Dr Kumar also said that we should promote peace and love among every religion. “All religions either that is Islam, Christianity, Hinduism or any other, gives the lesson of peace and harmony,” he said.

He said that it was also the responsibility of the state to provide tight security at the religious places particularly temples and churches.

Legal expert Mukhtar Ranjha said it was the collective responsibility of all segments of society to protect minorities. “Besides this, comprehensive legislation is also needed in this regard. People should be educated by religious scholars about tolerance,” he said.

In his address, Senator Afrasiab Khattak said that parliament should play a leading role in such issues. “The leaders should lead the people instead following them because they are the opinion makers,” Khattak said.

Mangla Sharma, a Hindu woman, shared her experiences. She said that she faced many odds in society. She added that the people surrounding her most of the time asked her to convert. After around six hours of consultations, the HRCP finally concluded that besides civil society, social activists, media, politicians, the majority of the society should stand with religious minorities.

The meeting also proposed that the parliamentary standing committees should devise special sub-committees to address particular issues in this regard.

Published in Daily Times, August 19^th 2017.