- Ministry of Religious Affairs to finalise a joint bill ‘National Commission for Non-Muslim Pakistani’s Rights’
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony on Monday directed the Ministry of Religious to club three private bills with an identical official bill of the minority rights and submit to the committee within a fortnight.
A meeting of the committee chaired by convener MNA Ali Muhammad Khan perused the three identical private bills including, ‘The Commission for Minorities Bill, 2015’, moved by Beelum Hasnain, ‘The Commission for Minorities Bill, 2015’, moved by Lal Chand Malhi and ‘The Commission for Minorities Bill, 2016’, moved by Sanjay Perwani.
PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan directed the religious ministry to have a session with the three movers and finalise a joint bill named ‘National Commission for Non-Muslim Pakistani’s Rights’.
MNA Lal Chand Malhi said that the commission for minorities’ bill would have a chairman and 10 members. The chairman of the minority community would be appointed by the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, he added.
The main responsibility will be to register complaints of minority community members and forward them to the relevant departments.
MNA Beelum Hasnain said that a commission should be constituted for minorities’ rights.
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Additional Secretary Muhammad Ashraf told the meeting that an identical bill to form the National Commission for Interfaith Harmony was almost finalised.
The committee was told that the existing National Commission for Minorities held only five meetings in the last five years. The committee expressed displeasure over the commission’s performance.
