PESHAWAR: Participants at a consultative meeting here on Wednesday appealed to ulema, civil society groups and political parties to play their role in creating religious harmony and protecting rights of minorities.

South Asia Partnership of Pakistan (SAP-Pk) organised the event titled ‘religious freedom and minorities rights’. 

The representatives of minority organisations demanded of the government to resolve their issues on priority basis along with ensuring equal rights as per the constitution. They said that Islam also guaranteed them equal rights to enjoy religious freedom in a peaceful atmosphere.  

Representatives of different organisations from Chitral, Swat, Peshawar, Kuram and Mohmand, including Zahir Shah Mohmand, Ijaz Durani, Tanveer Shah, Munir Bangash, senior journalist Shamim Shahid, Radesh Sing Tony, Haroon Sarb Diyal, Augustin Jacob, Saman Ara, Nusrat Ara and Shahida Shah shared their views about non-Muslims’ rights and their problems.

The participants said that due to efforts of civil society organisations, political parties and parliamentarians, a bill on protecting minorities’ properties had been tabled in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, while another one on ensuring religious freedom to non-Muslims was being drafted.

On the occasion, Haroon Sarb Diyal lamented that some chapters in the syllabus were based on hatred and called for removal of such material for sake of religious harmony and brotherhood.       

He said that teachers should tell students that they were all Pakistanis first and then believers of different religions.

Rejecting the impression that non-Muslims were a threat to Islam and Pakistan, he said that they gave reverence to Islam and their motherland (Pakistan). He said that there were some elements hatching conspiracies against non-Muslims to achieve their own goals. He said that these elements were out to grab holy places and properties owned by minority community, particularly Hindus.

Radesh Sing Tony claimed that of the 322 gurdwaras in Pakistan, only 15 were functional, while there was only one gurdwara left for Sikh community in KP province as others had been grabbed.

Speaking at the meeting, Augustin Jacob said that Christians had also been in the forefront for country’s integrity, but they were still being victimised. He said that wall of a Church situated in Peshawar Cantonment had been flattened in a storm some three months back, but the concerned department had yet to reconstruct it.

Other speakers demanded that the minority students should be given a choice between picking Islamiat, Deeniat or other subjects.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2014