LAHORE: The National Minorities Day was marked on Tuesday in remembrance of the Aug 11, 1947, speech delivered by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah before the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan stressing the fundamental rights of religious minorities in the soon-to-be-born country.

To mark 73 years of the historic speech, a convention, titled ‘Democracy versus tyranny of majority’, was held by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in collaboration with other rights-based organisations at a local hotel. A documentary was screened regarding the occasion.

In his opening speech, Peter Jacob, the CSJ executive director, said the government should make it a priority to increase protection for minorities and their rights, which could be done through a series of legal, policy and administrative measures to accommodate and cater to the demands, needs and challenges of minority citizens in Pakistan.

The convention was attended by parliamentarians, civil society members, human rights activists and minority community representatives.

Educationist Dr A.H. Nayyar said: “On Aug 11, 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah promised on the floor of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan that in the country to be born in three days, all the citizens irrespective of their faith will be equal in the eyes of the state and the law, that all the people will be free to profess and practice their religions, and the state will not discriminate between people of one faith against another,” he highlighted.

“Most certainly, a Pakistan based on these principles would have been a more tolerant and peaceful country than what it is now.”

Dr Shoaib Suddle, the chairman of the one-man commission on minority rights, said that democracies are inherently threatened by majority rule, so there must be safeguards in place to avoid tyranny.

Retired Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal urged the government to effectively comply with the verdict issued by retired Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani on June 19, 2014 about addressing the issues faced by minorities in terms of their basic rights, job quota, biased textbooks and intolerance.

The Pakistan representative of Human Rights Watch, lawyer Saroop Ijaz, also referred to the Justice Jillani judgement.

Punjab Human Rights and Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz Alam Augustine said services of religious minorities, along with their Muslim fellows, are a glorious chapter in the history of independence movement for Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2020