ISLAMABAD: President of the Human Rights Cell of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Farhatullah Babar has expressed concern over the delay in the establishment of the National Commission for Minorities and called for the immediate operationalisation of the law seeking the commission’s formation, which received presidential assent in December last year.

“Delay in operationalising the minorities commission undermines inclusive democracy,” Babar said in a statement on Monday.

Babar said the commission, once made functional, could become the first credible institutional forum for minorities to raise and seek redress of their concerns, ranging from forced conversions and under-representation in Parliament to job quotas and the misuse of blasphemy laws.

The former PPP senator questioned the delay in the formation of the commission when all provinces had already sent the names of their nominees.

He observed that the foundations of inequality were laid early in the country’s history. Referring to the adoption of the Objective Resolution in March 1949, he said it tilted the balance against minorities by undermining the principle of separation between religion and the state, as envisioned by Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his historic address of August 11, 1947, to the Constituent Assembly.

He pointed to structural impediments in the realisation of minority rights, including constitutional restrictions that bar minorities from becoming president or prime minister, indirect electoral mechanisms and the imposition of majority religious curricula on minority children.

Highlighting the issue of religious freedom, he said that while Muslims effectively could not change their religion in Pakistan, there were persistent allegations of young Hindu and Christian girls being coerced or induced into conversion and marriage.

“A true democracy rests on two pillars, including social justice and inclusivity,” he said, adding that an inclusive democracy must ensure that the voices of all segments of society, particularly the marginalised, are heard and respected.

He lamented that Pakistan continued to function as a “majoritarian state,” where both economic and political power were distributed primarily on the basis of population. Whether in the allocation of resources under the NFC Award or representation in Parliament, numerical strength determines outcomes, often to the detriment of smaller communities, he added.

Babar urged all minority communities to collectively raise their voices for the immediate establishment of the commission under the new law. While acknowledging the commendable work of the one-man commission constituted by the Supreme Court and headed by Shoaib Suddle, he stressed that a statutory, institutional commission must now be put in place without delay.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2026