CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN AND MINORITIES

CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN AND MINORITIES

Written by: Professor Anjum James Paul

Article 25 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan describes” All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.”
Constitution of any state is a sacred book and it is for the entire nation. It is without any bias, prejudice or discrimination against any individual, caste, gender or religion etc. There cannot be discrimination with any citizen on any basis. Unfortunately constitutions in Pakistan have been formulated against the vision of the father of the nation the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The vision that he presented in the First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947.There was no need of to promote the concept of two nation theory that is why he negated it and promoted nationalism in maiden address. It is sorry that his masterpiece address could not become a blue print for the Pakistani nation by some certain conspiracies. He very clearly said. “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State………Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State. “
On August 1, 2009 in Gojra when I saw the dead bodies of Musa 4, Ummaya 9, Asiya 22, Asifa 30,Akhlas Hameed 42,Perveen 50 and Hameed Masih who were set on fire and gave their in the hands of the terrorists just because they were Christians. They were all innocent children, men and women who were put to death without any crime. 68 houses were looted and burnt to ashes including seven precious lives. Local administration and police was just seeing this all but was unable to take any action against the extremists and terrorists. Only a day before on July 30, 2009 sixty four houses were first looted and then burnt to ashes. There was desecration of the Holy Bibles and the Christian literature. People in both of the places flee to escape their lives. It is very easy to excuse and assure that such incidents will not take place in future. Three such incidents took place only in two months in the province of Punjab which has become the most insecure province in Pakistan for Christians as the tragic incidents of Shanti Nagar 1997, Sangla Hill 2005, Bahmniwala 2009 and these most recent terrorist attacks have shaken the entire world when innocent people were burnt in Pakistan. Unfortunately all these incidents have taken place when there has been regime of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) or (Quaid-e-Azam).
According to the minorities, Constitution of Pakistan has failed to provide them shelter, protection and equal status as it has been declared an Islamic state that promotes only Islamic teachings and values. Islamic Ideology Council, Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Articles 29, 30, 33, 36, 37 and 40 include the need for Muslim children to be provided instructions in Islamiyat to enable them to develop themselves. National education policies are formulated keeping in mind the majority religion and minorities are kept aside in consultation and writing of the textbooks. There are biases and propagation against the minority religions and their civilizations in the textbooks and reason is simply that there is intolerance, unacceptability and violation of human rights. There is disrespect of the followers of the other religions. Their Holy Books are disrespected openly in the textbooks. Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Education has admitted in a letter to the Chairman Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association (PMTA) that there are biases in the Pakistani textbooks. PMTA has rejected the new discriminatory education policy 2009.Students of the minorities have to face many hardships in acquiring education. There is discrimination of 20 marks of Nazra (reciting the holy Quran by heart) and students of minorities are failed to get admission in higher education due to these discriminatory marks. These students can take examination directly for grade 8 after passing grade 5 examination. They are fully exempted to pay the tuition fee at college level as notified by the government. The role of minorities is not mentioned deliberately in the textbooks though they have played vital role in the creation and construction of Pakistan. During the assembly in the public educational institutions there is sermon and recitation of a particular religion while students of other religions are there too. Sense of segregation and inferiority complex is promoted in minorities’ studentsthem and most recent example is of celebrating the “Minority Day”. Instead of providing equal rights to them according to the address of the father of the nation they are denied of their rights. Spirit of the Quaid is in unrest due to the celebration of this day. Minorities demand equal citizenship of Pakistan but instead of their genuine demand they are segregated by this act which has never been their demand. There is not sanctity of their marriages. They are mostly offered menial jobs and are treated as untouchables. There are discriminatory articles and sections in the Constitution of Pakistan which violate fundamental rights. They are deprived of to take oath as the president, prime minister and speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan. There are reserved seats for the Muslim clerics in the Senate but minorities have been totally deprived of their right. Government says that there is 5% representation of minorities in the Senate if it is so then why not is there proper representation. There are only two female senators nominated by PPP and PML (Q). Reserved seats of the minorities have not been increased in the national and provincial assemblies but on the other hand seats of the Muslims have been increased many times. Minorities have been demanding for the right of double votes but they are denied of it and instead political parties select their favorite persons who do not represent their respective communities. They simply play in the hands of those parties which has caused serious damages to their communities. The building of the national assembly draws attention of a particular religion outside. There is prayer service before the commencement of the session of the assemblies and Senate while representatives of other religions are also present there.
After all of this brief discussion can we still say” All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.” If “yes” then it is great fraud. So, let us all be united as a nation throwing away all the above mentioned discriminations and biases in the Arabian Sea making Pakistan a real paradise on earth.