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| December 10, 2005 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 7, 1426 |
Govt criticized for failing to curb extremism
ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: The incidents of Sangla Hill were merely manifestation of the alarming level of religious intolerance prevailing in the country being fuelled by hate speech and discriminatory laws. “The district of Nankana is simmering with hate speech against the Christian minority.
The government has done nothing to defuse the tension despite repeated reminders by the community leaders,” said a speaker at a press briefing organized by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, here on Friday.
The press conference was called to condemn inefficiency on part of the government to control religious intolerance in the country and failure to dispense justice and safeguarding rights of minorities.
Speakers at the conference alleged that the present government was terribly failing to repair the situation because it was not admitting the facts and was instead protecting the instigators of mob violence.
The judicial inquiry was being made ineffective through procedural delays and also causing the loss of vital evidence to the offences.
The government was also guilty of hiding facts from the people of Pakistan by concealing the extent of the abuse of blasphemy laws, they said.
“Discriminatory laws of blasphemy were hanging like Damocles’ sword hanging over the heads of minorities and were also source of deep sense of insecurity and fear among religious minorities.”
The speakers urged the government to apprehend the instigators of the mob violence without any delay who were responsible for abusing religion and law at Sangla Hill.
They demanded that the findings of the judicial inquiry be made public immediately and to set free all innocent persons including Yousuf Masih who, they said, was victimised due to his religious belief.
They demanded repealing of Blasphemy Laws, Hudood Ordinances and other ‘discriminatory’ laws and articles of the constitution.
The participating speakers, representing various organizations, also vowed to undertake a mass contact movement to inform the people of Pakistan about the alarming condition of intolerance and violence due to ‘religious apartheid’ in the country.
They also resolved to take all peaceful and lawful measures to combat religious intolerance till its end.
Commission for Peace and Human Development, Centre of Legal Assistance and Settlement, All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, Christian Study Centre-Rawalpindi and Justice and Peace were being represented at the press conference.
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