MULTAN: The cultural diversity of the country is under threat and religious minorities and various ethnic communities are being denied rights and identity.

Society for the Protection of Rights of Child (Sparc) National Manager Kashif Bajeer said this at a seminar arranged by the Coalition for Rights of Minorities (CRM) on Saturday.

He said the cultural diversity was the common heritage of humanity and it should be adopted at every level.

He said Pakistan was a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual and multi-religion society where all groups exist as one nation.

The ethnic communities and diverse cultures included Punjabi, Baloch, Sindhi, Seraiki and Pashtu and similarly besides Islam, the believers of Hindu, Sikh, Christianity and other religion were also living in Pakistan.

He said that the basic idea behind the creation of Pakistan was to create peace, tolerance, harmony, security, welfare and cooperation among the people of religions, ethnic and cultural groups but unfortunately, today Pakistan has become one of the most dangerous places to live.

He said that the discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity and culture was seriously affecting the ability of religious minorities and other groups to access their rights to education, healthcare, residency and employment and to participate in the democratic process. He said the religious minorities Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Kalashi, Shias and Ahmedis were being targeted while the Seraiki, Sindhi, Baloch and Pashtun nations were struggling for their rights.

He said that it was unfortunate that the government, its law enforcement agencies and the judiciary had failed to protect the minorities while parliament had failed to end discrimination among all nations of the country. He said the Seraiki nation was facing the worst discrimination as the state was denying its identity by refusing to create a Seraiki province.

Saman Malik of Sparc said that attacks on religious places in Sindh, hatred curriculum material against the minorities, discriminatory laws and practices forced conversion of minorities.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2014