Proposals made for protection of minorities

LAHORE:At a policy dialogue on ‘Police Responsiveness and Protection of Religious Minorities in Punjab’ at Forman Christian College University (FCCU) here, the participants--rights activists and lawyers, discussed challenges and gave recommendations to overcome them.

The speakers said that what is needed is a state narrative and that will be established only by taking strict action against the miscreants. The state has to give a narrative to stop mob violence.

The speakers said nobody has ever been punished for lodging 'false' FIR for blasphemy. This needs to change. The key speakers were Nadeem Ashraf, Member National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Punjab, Muhammad Waqas Nazir, DIG Operations, Saeed Shafqat, founding director of the Centre for Public Policy and Governance (CPPG) at FCCU and Asif Aqeel, faculty member of Lahore School of Law and Deputy Director of Centre for Law and Justice (CLJ).

The Centre for Law and Justice (CLJ) is spearheading a project in collaboration with Forman Christian College University's Centre for Public Policy and Governance, the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), and the National Commission for Human Rights. The primary objective of this project is to enhance police responsiveness towards religious minorities, thereby improving their protection.

Asif Aqeel said religious minorities face a plethora of challenges. These range from accusations of blasphemy, which often lead to coercion, exploitation, forced evacuations from land, and financial manipulation. However, many feel unable to report these incidents to the police, fearing indifference or inaction. Over the past two months, a study conducted by the CLJ has been assessing the extent of hatred, violence, and even instances of sexual exploitation. Waqas Nazir who is also the official spokesperson for police, said, 'Socio-political processes have a fall-out on everything and the economically less privileged suffer more. You cannot separate the problem from social and political linkages.'

'Problem identification has become the most important challenge in our time. It needs courage to find solution,' Nazir said. Nadeem Ashraf said, 'When state comes with a heavy hand, violence comes to an end.' He recalled that in 1994, there was no sectarian killing because the state took strong measures.

He said change becomes possible with action. He wrote to government to replace Islamiyat with ethics for non-Muslims in preliminary exam of CSS and it actually changed this year.