KARACHI: The recent attacks on worship places of minorities, perpetrators and their motives and the impact of their actions on the affected communities were some of the issues reviewed by an expert group meeting at a programme organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) here on Friday.

“Attacks on the places of worship of minority groups hurt their communities more than an individual attack.

These attacks are not just a problem with law and order. There are other contributing factors such as lack of tolerance, immaturity and little respect for other communities involved too,” said noted rights activist I.A. Rehman, who is also the secretary general of the HRCP.

Retired Justice Mehta Kailash Nath Kohli said that what to say about places of worship of minorities when he had to fight in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to save the cremation ground of Hindus in Quetta, which was going to be taken away for construction of apartment buildings, etc. “The evacuee trust law has done us minorities the most harm as under it the government took over from us what was rightfully ours. While there are attacks on religious places the evacuee trust department hit us from inside. Would you believe that due to this law, I am not even allowed to renovate a temple as when I tried they came to arrest me,” he said.

Justice Kohli also regretted the Babri Mosque incident in India following which most of the temples in Balochistan were burnt or damaged save the ones in Quetta where the law enforcement agencies were more vigilant thanks to his foresight. “The attacks on temples and other places of worship of minority groups take place due to religious extremism, rise in land and property prices, intolerance and the lack of interest of the government in protecting these sites. I also hold the media accountable for not reporting the injustices carried out as much as it ought to,” he said.

According to him, another thing was the lack of interest of the political parties in taking up the cause of minorities. “The political parties only give a party ticket to those who toe their line and not on merit. This is why not a single law to look after the rights of minority groups has been made here since 1947,” he observed.

Prof Ijaz Quraishi pointed out that this was an issue of not just Hindus, Christians or Sikhs but Shia and Ahmadis, too, who are also in minority in Pakistan. “And with nothing being done for any of them, we are seeing them migrate to other countries,” he said.

Zahid Farooq of the Urban Resource Centre said that some 12,000 minority families had migrated from Pakistan and they live in quite bad condition and as second-class citizens in Thailand, Sri Lanka or Malaysia as they have spent all their savings in getting there. “Our graveyards, too, have been filled to capacity and we are making new graves atop old ones,” he said.

Giving details of the attack on a Hindu dharamshala in Larkana, Mangla Sharma said that a Hindu man involved in the incident was still locked up though the Muslims had been released on bail. “Then there was the Badin incident during our Holi festival where someone wrote something using our colours. Anyone who wants to do anything does so and gets away with it, too, while the national media turns a blind eye,” she said.

“According to the Liaquat-Nehru pact the property of Muslims in India was going to be taken care of by the Muslim community there while those of the minorities here were going to be the responsibility of their communities but the Supreme Court and the Chief justice didn’t bring up that,” she regretted.

On the issue of care and protection of religious sites and places of worship of minorities, Dr Mohan Manjiani, president of the All Hindu Rights Organisation, brought up the issue of the historic Clifton temple at Jehangir Kothari Parade, which may now be destroyed due to the extensive digging all around it. “The monsoons are upon us and pretty soon it will rain and the water will surely flood the place and be absorbed into the temple’s foundations to simply destroy it,” he voiced his fears.

Dr Jaipal Chhabria of the HRCP pointed out the missing history in Pakistani schoolbooks. “Hindus and Christians had a major role to play in the making of Pakistan but somehow this fact has been missing from our textbooks,” he said.

“Jinnah’s August 11 speech was presided over by Jogendra Nath Mandal. He was also our first law minister but our history books ignore that fact. Then when the Lahore Resolution was being passed, we were short of three votes. Those three votes came from three Christians but we do not acknowledge that fact,” he pointed out.

He also said all political parties in India and the UK do not have minority wings but we here in Pakistan have minority wings and to be a part of those we have to carry out favours. “Our political parties don’t want efficient people, they want loyal ones,” he said.

Sardar Ramesh Singh, patron and chief of the Pakistan Sikh Council, said that their holy book had been damaged or burnt seven times since March last year but the Sindh government was yet to condemn it leave alone punish the culprits. “There have only been two FIRs lodged for the seven incidents. The government only sweeps our issues under the carpet,” he said. “If our ministers can’t help us then maybe we should have separate elections,” he added.

Dr Vijay Kumar said that the Hindus in Pakistan were mostly Sindhi and he saw hurting them as part of a strategy of making Sindhis few in number in the province so that they, too, become a minority group. Former MPA Pitamber Sewani, Dr Sabir Michael, MPA Michael Jawaid, Inder Ahuja, Prakash P. Chanaal representing the Harijan community and Shujauddin Amir also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2014