Representatives belonging to different religions have demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) lawmakers to consider the final draft on Minority Rights Commission (MRC) and table it in the provincial Assembly immediately.
They made the demand during a meeting with MPAs on final draft to tabled, organised by South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK) held here at a local hotel. Those spoke in the meeting were included Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam -Fazl (JUI-F), Mufti Fazl Ghafoor, Tariq Khan of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Baba Gorpal Singh, Augustine Jacob, a Christian, Regional Head SAP, Sikander Zaman, a senior journalist Shamim Shahid, coordinators Nusrat Ara and Amir Khattak.
In the meeting, the final draft was presented to the participants with an aim to get further suggestions to improve the commission if it is needed. The representatives of non-Muslims on the occasion approved the draft and said that it was good a step to mitigate their problems and it would help in fulfilling their demands while the MPA requested for some time to have a look over it.
Mufti Fazl Ghafoor quoted some Hadith about minorities and said that Islam orders to protect all properties of minorities and hold high estimate to all non-Muslims, he added that unfortunately, misconception was spread about Islam and non-Muslims. However, he urged the media to give quotations of Hadith about minority rights so that the misconception could be removed in order to create harmony and a peaceful atmosphere be made among Muslim and non- Muslim community.
It is worth mentioning here that several meetings were held on Minority Rights Commission with provincial lawmakers and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to get suggestions from them to remove objections and give final touch to it so that a comprehensive draft could be tabled in the provincial assembly.
Augustine Jacob and Baba Gorpal Singh said that they were also Pakistani and deserved for equal rights as Muslim community enjoy saying that they did not have access to any concerned department about their ordeals like Muslims have easily approach in this regard while the commission would be a full-fledged body wherein problems of all minorities would be acquainted, which would definitely be resolved on priority basis.
Tariq Khan of QWP gave suggestion that the MRC draft should be provided to all MPAs and media persons to have a look on the draft and it be tabled in the assembly for approval.
Sikander Zaman and Nusrat Ara said that the SAP had been working on human rights particularly on non-Muslim Pakistanis and raising issues being faced by them while Shamim Shahid highlighted the ordeals of the minorities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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