LAHORE: The representatives of the religious minorities have demanded establishment of a committee under the chief justice of Pakistan to hear the cases of violation of the rights of the religious minorities.

They had gathered from all over the country at the Lahore Press Club on Friday to discuss minorities’ rights and to present a charter of demands in a convention organised by the Minority Rights Watch.

Samson Salamat and Samuel Payara led the convention along other leaders. Their demands were primarily based on the suo motu case of 2014 by the then CJP Tassaduq Hussain Jillani. They demanded the government ensure political representation of the religious minorities and form constituencies according to the new census and the population of the minorities for their true representation by their leaders.

A properly trained police force for protection of the minorities’ places of worship should be formed and the prime minister, through an act of the parliament, should form an independent and empowered National Minority Commission whose chairman should also be from a minority community, they said.

The representatives of minority communities further demanded formation of the National Council for Minorities Rights to make sure that their rights were accepted and implemented according to the Constitution. This council should also be involved in making policies meant for minorities at provincial and federal levels.

Other demands included solid steps by the federal government to stop hate speech and hate literature, punishing those involved in such activities, fair representation of the minorities in school textbooks and removal of negative representation of minority figures and hate material from them. Return of the missionary school in Raheempura (Karachi), which was also attended by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to the Christians and formation of a taskforce by federal government to promote inter-faith harmony were also among the demands.

The minority leaders deplored that the Supreme Court’s order for establishment of an endowment fund for those injured in Peshawar’s bomb blast in 2013 was not implemented.

Similar conventions would also be held in Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi, Hyderabad and Quetta press clubs.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2017