26 July 2004	Monday	08 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, July 25: The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) on Sunday asked the federal government to stop the provincial government from enacting the proposed Hasba Act as it amounted to creation of a parallel judicial system and a state within the state.

The APMA's central chairman, Shehbaz Bhatti urged the federal government to give due share to minorities in the armed forces and superior judiciary. Addressing a function arranged by the provincial chapter of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance in connection with some councillors joining the alliance, Mr Bhatti called upon the government to reserve seats for minorities in the Senate and to enhance their seats in the National and provincial assemblies.

"It is a great injustice to the minorities that the number of general seats in the assemblies have been increased, but minorities seats remained the same as stipulated in the 1973 Constitution," he added.

For curbing terrorism, Mr Bhatti proposed that a National Council Against Terrorism be formed which would include members from all religions and the said council should decide how to tackle with terrorism.

Mr Bhatti said that religion was the personal affair of an individual and it could not be implemented through use of force or oppressive laws, therefore the minorities were opposed to the proposed Hasba law.

He urged upon the federal government to use its influence in stopping the enactment of the said law. "If the law is enacted by the MMA's government we will challenged it in the Supreme Court as it is violative of the fundamental rights of the individuals belonging to all the religions," he claimed.

Mr Bhatti criticised the Blasphemy and Hudood laws, stating that these laws were mostly misused against members of the religious minorities and women. He stated: "we are ready to accept all the laws which are in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Medina Accord signed by Holy Prophet Muhammad and sayings of Quaid-e-Azam."

The APMA's chairman demanded of the federal government that just like the sanads of madressahs were recognised in the 2002 general elections, the minorities seminaries should also be recognised in next elections.

The APMA's chairman vowed that they would not allow the religious extremists to start Talibanization in the country as their identity was first because of Pakistan and not due to their religions.

An MPA from Punjab, Naveed Aamir Jewa, said that on Aug 11, 1947, Late Quaid-e-Azam had promised that everybody would be treated equally in the new state and nobody would be discriminated on basis of sex, religion, caste, colour or creed.

However, he regretted that soon after his death the successive rulers forgot his sayings and oppressive steps were taken against religious minorities. He said that section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code, popularly known as the Blasphemy Law, was introduced by a military dictator which had widely been misused against religious minorities.

He said that there were three MPAs of the APMA in the Punjab Assembly, but none of them were relatives of Mr Bhatti as he had vowed that neither he nor any of his relatives would accept any government post including membership of assemblies.

The chairman of the Peshawar Minorities Councillors Alliance, Yousaf George, asked the government to provide protection to the minorities as there were growing cases of forced conversion and marriages of Christian girls.

He added that various cases of abduction of Christian girls were also reported. A representative of Sikh community, Sardar Ram Singh said that the land of Pakistan was very sacred for them as their spiritual head Baba Guru Nanak was born here.

He said that Sikhs and other minorities should be recruited in Pakistan Army as they wanted to defend their motherland just like their Muslim brothers. The function was also addressed by central organiser of APMA, Khalid Gill, provincial president Prince Jawed, woman councillor Yasmeen Jawed, Babar Shamoon from Kohat and Akmal Bhatti.