Islamabad, Pakistan – A outstanding rights group in Pakistan has expressed “appreciable alarm” over the state of non secular freedom within the nation.
In its report titled A Breach of Religion: Freedom of Faith or Perception in 2021-22 launched on Tuesday, the Human Rights Fee of Pakistan (HRCP) stated incidents of the nation’s non secular minorities going through persecution remained constant between July 2021 and June 2022.
The HRCP report targeted on compelled conversions, the desecration of locations of worship belonging to minorities and the marginalisation of the Ahmadi neighborhood.
It additionally questioned the standardised nationwide curriculum in components of Pakistan, which the group stated has created an “exclusionary narrative that sidelines Pakistan’s non secular minorities”.
REPORT LAUNCH: HRCP’s report ‘A Breach of Religion: Freedom of Faith or Perception in 2021-22’ observes with appreciable alarm developments throughout 2021/22 that belie the state’s dedication to freedom of faith or perception. 1/3@EUPakistan https://t.co/Vpj4o5KxRw pic.twitter.com/aKgY61f0iS
— Human Rights Fee of Pakistan (@HRCP87) February 7, 2023
The report stated that within the 12 months 2021 alone, “round 60 circumstances of compelled conversion had been reported within the native media, of which 70 % had been women beneath the age of 18”, most of them from the Sindh province.
Final month, a bunch of rights consultants from the United Nations had additionally deplored abductions, compelled marriages and conversions of ladies from Pakistan’s non secular minorities, asking the federal government to take motion.
Pressured conversions and compelled marriages are forbidden in Islam.
In keeping with the HRCP report, Muslims account for about 96 % of Pakistan’s 207 million inhabitants, Hindus 2.1 %, Christians about 1.6 %, whereas the Ahmadis quantity solely about 0.2 %.
Pakistan’s Shia Muslim neighborhood, whereas not counted as a non secular minority within the census information, makes up about 20 % of the full inhabitants.
The Ahmadis think about themselves Muslim however are barred from referring to themselves as such, or from practising elements of their religion beneath Pakistan’s strict blasphemy legal guidelines.
The HRCP stated the brink of proof relating to blasphemy accusations have to be raised within the nation.
“It have to be ensured that the legal guidelines in query will not be weaponised by folks to settle private vendettas, as is so typically the case,” it stated.
Knowledge for 2021, cited by the HRCP, confirmed at the very least 585 circumstances of blasphemy had been registered by the police, most of them in Punjab province. Of those, at the very least 16 circumstances had been filed towards members of the Ahmadi neighborhood.
In keeping with an Al Jazeera tally, at the very least 80 folks have been murdered in reference to blasphemy allegations in Pakistan since 1990.
The HRCP report additional stated greater than half of all on-line hate speech (53 %) in Pakistan is directed on the Ahmadi neighborhood, and made a number of suggestions to guard the nation’s minorities.
The group stated the controversial nationwide curriculum have to be revised to make sure that secular topics don’t comprise any non secular content material or “any materials that discriminates towards non secular minorities and sects or their faiths”.
“Until these measures are carried out urgently, Pakistan will proceed to foster a local weather of impunity for perpetrators of faith-based discrimination and violence, permitting the already-narrow area for non secular freedom to shrink even additional,” the HRCP stated in its assertion.
The rights group known as for pressing laws to criminalise compelled conversions and demanded the state make a concerted effort to counter sectarian violence by creating a nationwide narrative that “unambiguously eschews non secular extremism and majoritarianism”.
It additionally requested for the formation of an autonomous, nationally consultant fee for non secular minorities to be arrange by means of an act of parliament.
HRCP director Farah Zia stated the federal government’s declare on defending the non secular minorities can’t be seen in isolation and ties in with the state’s long-term insurance policies that betray an uneasy relationship with the minority communities.
She stated it was ironic that regardless of being a Muslim majority nation, Pakistan has struggled with the thought of equal citizenship since its inception.
“That is mirrored within the discriminatory clauses of the structure in addition to within the egregious persecution of minorities by the society at giant,” Zia instructed Al Jazeera.
“The problematic composition of the nationwide fee for minorities, the one nationwide curriculum and incidence of compelled conversions solely testify to this sense of insecurity of the bulk.”
Patricia Gossman, affiliate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, stated the HRCP report places a highlight on freedom of faith and perception in Pakistan.
“The authorities have to take pressing measures to finish the authorized discrimination towards non secular minorities and to forestall non secular persecution and marginalisation of minorities. The authorities additionally want to carry perpetrators of violence and discrimination towards non secular minorities accountable,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
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