Pakistan National Commission for Minorities

The Pakistan National Commission for Minorities is a commission for the preservation of religious minorities in Pakistan. It is under Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony.[1]

Background

In June 2014, the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Peshawar church bombing case mandated the federal government to form a national council for minorities.[2] Till 2018 no such Commission was formed. So the Centre for Social Justice, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court to have the judgement implemented.[3] On 19 February 2020, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony requested the Supreme Court to give more time for the formation of the commission and the Court gave 2 months to constitute the commission.[4]

Structure

The commission contains six official and 12 non-official members including the chairman for a term of three years.

The 6 official members are chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, one member from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Human Rights and the Federal Education and Professional Training each.

The 12 non-official members include 2 Muslims, 3 Hindus, 3 Christians, 2 Sikh, 1 Parsi and 1 Kalasha members.[5]

Criticism

The Ahmadiya were excluded from the Commission. A resolution seeking their inclusion was submitted in the Pakistan assembly in which it is said that the Ahmadiya to be included in the Commission, if their top leaders submits that the Ahmadiyas are non Muslims.[6]

The Hindu Sudhar Sabha criticized the commission for excluding Scheduled castes Hindus, who constitute majority of the Hindu community. The Peter Jacob, the Catholic director of the Centre for Social Justice said that the minority commission is under the Ministry of Religious Affairs and have no statutory powers. He added that the formation of the minority commission was supposed to be formes as an act of parliament.[7]

Another criticism is about the inclusion of two Muslim members in the a commission for religious minorities.Religious Minority leaders questioned that if non-Muslim cannot be part of the Council of Islamic Ideology, then why include Muslim members in the minority commission? .[8][9]

References
  1. "Govt notifies reconstituted commission for minorities". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  2. "Minority body approved by cabinet 'violates' SC order". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  3. "The Pakistani Supreme Court's 2014 judgement to protect minority rights still awaits implementation". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  4. "Minority body approved by cabinet 'violates' SC order". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  5. "Govt notifies reconstituted commission for minorities". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  6. "PA resolution for conditional inclusion of Ahmadis in minorities commission". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  7. "Pakistan's controversial commission for minorities". Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  8. "Controversy over newly formed national minority commission in Pakistan". Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  9. "Pakistan's controversial commission for minorities". Retrieved 14 May 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.