There is desperate need to give minorities equal constitutional rights so that they can develop sense of nationhood.
SIALKOT: Minorities in Pakistan are living in a perpetual state of fear despite all the constitutional guarantees. Their fears have escalated in recent years due to an increase in extremism, which has marginalised all the liberal and secular voices, rendering them vulnerable to the danger of extremism. Some controversial laws, which are the making of a former military dictator, have become the instruments of oppressing minorities, but nobody dares to talk about reforming these laws, let alone speak of repealing them. The mere allegation of blasphemy coupled with a few witnesses may jeopardise the life of a person. Whenever anyone tries to speak in favour of the minorities, one is labelled a traitor, to be punished either with death or with banishment.
The irony is that when any Western country introduces any law which affects our religious beliefs or traditions, we raise a hue and cry over their prejudicial treatment; for example the recent ban on veil in France is analogous to it, even then we oppose it. But sadly, we can never muster up the courage to talk about the injustices done to minorities in our own country. There is no dearth of such evangelical creeds that seem to be on the divine mission to proselytise Ahmadis and Christians in an extremely harassing manner, but they would not allow the latter to profess their religious beliefs in public and not to speak of preaching such beliefs.
At this point in time, the entire nation is fighting against the menace of terrorism and extremism so it is the perfect time to fight against them on ideological fronts by freeing the scared minorities from the shackles of discriminatory laws and prejudices. There is desperate need to give minorities equal constitutional rights so that they can develop the sense of nationhood.
Tayyab Butt
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
