‘Punjab to introduce interfaith harmony policy’

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Ijaz Alam Augustine has said the provincial government is set to introduce an interfaith harmony policy, which is aimed to promote peaceful coexistence between diverse citizenry of Punjab.

He was speaking at multi-stakeholder dialogue: “Towards Improved Human Rights Protection in Punjab”, jointly organised by the Democracy Reporting International and Punjab Human Rights and Minority Affairs Department.

The minister said: “We need to change societal behaviour to ensure respect for people’s rights, especially of minority communities.” While speaking on the occasion, Tahir Khalil Sindhu, chairperson of the Punjab Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights and Minorities Affairs, extended support to human rights stakeholders. He informed the participants that meetings of the standing committee were not being held due to the mandate limitation of the committee chair and members.

With changes in the rules of procedures, it is now possible for committee to call the meetings and take suo motu actions against human rights violations. After the change in rules, the committee had taken two suo motu actions on key human rights violation issues, he said.