APROPOS the editorial ‘A step forward’ (Oct 7). It was mentioned that a special bench has been constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for ensuring compliance and implementation of the recommendations made in 2014 by a former Chief Justice in the Peshawar church bombing case verdict of 2013.

The 2014 judgment provided a critical path for the requisite correction by giving clear directions to the federal and provincial governments to take necessary actions under the existing law to protect the rights of minorities, besides broadening the purview of religious freedom.

The recommendations comprised prompt registration of criminal cases against those who desecrate places of worships; setting up a special police force to protect places of worships; taking action against those people who initiate or spread hate speech on social media and amending school and college curricula to help promote religious tolerance.

The aforementioned recommendations were made by the former CJP in 2014 and it was thus the primary responsibility of the federal and the provincial governments to effectively implement these recommendations, but it appears that these governments did not take these recommendations seriously. No wonder the Supreme Court of Pakistan has now decided to constitute a special bench for the effective implementation of its verdict. Had these recommendations been properly implemented and monitored effectively by the concerned federal and provincial governments in 2014 and thereafter, the similar attacks in Lahore (2015), Quetta (2017) , mob violence in Mirpurkhas and Ghotki could be avoided.

Now it is time to seriously implement these recommendations in federal and provincial levels in letter and spirit so that such incidents of religious intolerance do not recur.

Syed Mushtaq Ahmad

Lahore

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2019