LAHORE: Religious minorities are threatened and left to feel defenceless while political parties have done nothing to protect their rights.

This was a consensus among participants in a media consultation workshop organised by the South Asia Partnership (SAP) at a local hotel on Friday.

All participants agreed that the discrimination against religious minorities was on the rise in several parts of the country.

SAP Executive Director Muhammad Tehseen briefed the media on the findings of a study saying the performance of the National Assembly had been disappointed in terms of protecting the rights of religious minorities.

He said: “The government is not doing enough to honour the commitments made in the National Assembly during its first parliamentary year for the protection of rights of religious minorities”.

He said the SAP with the help of some researchers had conducted a study which showed that members of parliaments hardly raised the issue of minorities.

“They have discussed the issues pertaining to the minorities only for 15 hours during their first parliamentary year from June 2013 to June 2014,” he said.

Right to Expression Association Assembly and Thought (REAT) representative Arshad Mehmood said that all political parties in their manifestoes had committed to address the problems faced by minorities, but they reneged on their promises in the assembly.

He said the study showed that on Nov 4, 2013, Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf said the federal government had reactivated the national commission for minorities with an expanded mandate, but the commission was still to be made active.

The study showed that the Constitutional Amendment Bill had been presented in the National Assembly on Jan 28, 2014 to increase seats reserved for minorities to 15 from 10, but no action has so far been taken.

SAP representative Hameed Gondal said the organisation was working on changing the current state of minorities in the country. “Pakistan is a signatory to several conventions and it has to ensure rights of religious minorities but the state has failed to do so,” he said.

The participants from different print and electric media groups said that it would be hard to ensure interfaith harmony without the active participation of the media. “The civil society and parliamentarians should also play their due role in this regard,” said a newsmen.

He said the syllabus in educational institutions should be selected in such a way as to promote equality and peace while contents inciting hatred be done away with immediately.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2014