LAHORE: The issues faced by minorities in Pakistan don’t seem to end and they claim that many of the apex court decisions issued four years ago have yet to be implemented, a local media house reported.
It had been reported that in June 2014, the then CJP Tasadduq Hussain Jillani took notice and ordered to protect religious minorities and their rights. However, most of the directives are yet to be implemented.
While many from the non-Muslim community have been protesting this throughout, a couple of applications have been filed recently in the Supreme Court seeking the implementation of the verdict.
Justice Jillani directed for a special task force to be constituted, hate-speech free curricula in schools, hate speech in social media be severely dealt with, national council for minority rights be constituted, a special police force be established for safeguarding places of worship, and a special three-member bench be constituted to ensure the implementation of all these.
The demand for better implementation of the five per cent job quota and the implementation of Article 25A (free and compulsory education for all children) are what the applicants want for their community.
Having said that, the minorities have again expressed their feeling of being pushed in the corner as the country prepares for the upcoming elections. This concern was raised especially because of these directives not being implemented. In the meantime, the first hearing for this application will be held on Thursday.
Another application has also been presented in the SC by The Voice of Christians International (VOCI) represented by Ramesh Kumar from Sindh and Samuel Payara from Punjab. Samuel has also submitted various applications in court as an individual too regarding these issues.
Samuel stressed on the fact that although a National Commission for Minority Rights has already been made there seem to be no power or presence of the commission.