Daily Times

The Father of the nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his address to the first constituent assembly of Pakistan on 11th August 1947, Mr. Jinnah said:

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples; free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in the State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or cast or creed that has Nothing to do with the business of the state”.

Quaid obviously understood the sensitivity of the matter and knew that breaking a nation into groups and sects based on caste or religion would do no good. Mr. Jinnah was very clear in his vision that he did not want non-Muslims in Pakistan to suffer as the Muslim minority suffered in India.

Article 22 of the Constitution reads as follows:

Safeguards as to educational institutions in respect of religion, etc.-(1) No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.

We find a plethora of laws relevant to this article in connection with admissions in the educational institutions. However, in the curricula/syllabus pertaining to different religious communities in the country we hardly find any judicial or administrative pronouncements.

When I went to visit the people of Kalash along with other members of the Commission, I observed that they were being imparted religious education through the curriculum which the KP government clearly seem to have devised only for Muslims. They were also being taught history of Muslim conquests.

During visits to Tharparkar, where 55 percent of the population is Hindu, the same dilemma was observed. The irony is that the Hindus were being taught justifications for various Muslim conquests. It must be shocking for Hindu students to be introduced to such a narrative which denounces them on religious grounds.

A similar complaint was made to NCHR by the Christian community, the Sikh community too have objections against such a curriculum as well as the Bahias, the Zoroastrians etc.

The provisions of article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan explicitly deal with the freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions, it reads:

Freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions. – Subject to law, public order and morality- (a) every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion; and (b) every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

Whereas Article 36 of the Constitution reads as:

Protection of minorities. -The State shall safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minorities, including their due representation in the Federal and Provincial services.

Whereas article 31 enjoins that steps shall be taken to enable the Muslims of Pakistan individually and collectively to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principle and basic concepts of Islam and to provide facilities where they may be enabled to understand the meaning of life according to the Holy Quran and Sunnah, but it is particularly noteworthy that there are no such provisions or policy for non-Muslims.

The Kalash community is however scared that their population will decrease even further from the present figure of four thousand and may extinguish in a few years. They are asking for protection as guaranteed by Article 22. With respect to their marriages they have to fall on ritual practices of Muslims because their own rituals are not in place. Their customary laws are also endangered

Our visits to Kalash and Tharparkar further showed the presence of various religious groups, some of them actively indoctrinating their beliefs on the poor and vulnerable minority. This is a major factor which leads to immunity with regard to forced marriages and conversions.

In Kalash, I met a young Kalashi boy who had converted to Islam. When I asked him the reason for doing so, he said that he had no other option. The Kalash community is however scared that their population will decrease even further from the present figure of four thousand and may extinguish in a few years. They are asking for protection as guaranteed by Article 22. With respect to their marriages they have to fall on ritual practices of Muslims because their own rituals are not in place. Their customary laws are also endangered. Anyhow, I offered my services for codification of their customary laws so that they can carry on their lives in accordance with their culture and traditions.

Article 30 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice by the minorities. As per article 29(1) citizens residing in the territories of the India and having a distant language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same. Article 350 9(b) provides for the appointment of special officer for linguistic minorities to investigate into all matter relating to linguistic minorities under constitution. The Constitution also provides guarantees to weaker section of the society. According to Article 46, the federal government is responsible for the economic and educational development of the scheduled castes and tribes. It guarantees protection from social injustices and all forms of exploitations

In Tharparkar the Hindu community finds it safer in naming their temples (mandir) as ‘Gurdwaras’ while quoting the will of the state providing patronage to the Sikh community.

Of course with the democratic government, the minorities have a better position than before. But it remains to be seen how their culture and creed can flourish as promised by Quaid-e-Azam until article 22 is implemented through curriculums and academics.

The National Commission for Human Rights will soon have a consultation on this subject to highlight the issue and the importance of the largely uncharted Article 22. We hope the government will take curative measures in this respect as this is an important human rights matter.

The writer is the Chairman of National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan

Published in Daily Times, January 15^th 2019.