KARACHI: The Pakistan Hindu Council has proposed setting up of an active interfaith committee at the federal level under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to prevent incidents of violence against minorities and promote interfaith harmony.

The executive committee of the PHC met here on Sunday to review the mounting atrocities against the religious minorities across the country.

It condemned the brutal killing of a Christian couple in Lahore, which created fear and increased sense of insecurity among members of the minorities.

The meeting, presided over by PHC president Chela Ram Kewlani, condemned the kidnapping of Hindu citizens, particularly of minor girl Anjali from Daharki, Kiran from Nawabshah and Jeoti from Hyderabad.

Highlighting the need for interfaith harmony and legislation for a Hindu marriage law, the PHC called upon the prime minister and provincial chief ministers to ensure effective implementation of laws to protect rights of the minorities.

Speaking on the occasion, PHC president Kewlani said that the oppressed minorities saw a ray of hope in the orders of the Supreme Court for protecting rights of the minorities but despite more than a year having passed since then the minorities were still vulnerable as their religious places were being occupied by mafias and Hindu girls were being abducted.

The meeting proposed that state minister for religious affairs Amin-ul-Hasnat Shah, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s Maulana Shirani, Mir Hasil Bizinjo of the Balochistan National Party, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of the Hindu community, Kamran Michael of the Christian community and at least one member from each religious parties, including the Jamaat-i-Islami, be part of an interfaith committee.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar, also patron-in-chief of the PHC, said incidents of kidnapping of Hindu girls, forced conversion and forcible marriages were grave issues faced by the Hindu minority due to the absence of the Hindu Marriage Registration Act.

He said the constitution guaranteed rights to the minorities and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his Aug 11, 1947 speech had clearly said that it was the first duty of state to ensure welfare of the minorities and protect their rights.

He regretted that the Sindh government had failed to address the minorities’ issues and to protect their worship places, cemeteries and properties. “Similarly, the misuse of the blasphemy laws to meet personal designs on a larger scale resulted in harassment to the minorities,” he said.

The meeting was also attended by Hotchand Kirmani VP, Dr Deepak, Gopal Das, Raja Assarmal, Bharat Kumar, Paman Lal and other Hindu representatives and advisers from across the country.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2014