Lawmakers call for ensuring minority protection

Increase in hate crimes and kidnappings discussed in the lower house.

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling and opposition parties on Monday sought urgent government action on hate crimes against religious minorities, including an increase in kidnappings in the southwestern regions, which has forced many to abandon their hometowns.

The migration of a Hindu lawmaker from Sindh to India last week and an increase in the kidnapping for ransom incidents against the community were at the centre of all the speeches in the National Assembly session.

“Have we descended to that level of insecurity that minorities are forced to opt for migration? Have they lost faith in the religious and constitutional guarantees promised by the state of Pakistan?” asked Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Palwasha Khan.

She argued this situation was contrary to what was envisaged in the 1973 Constitution wherein minorities were promised equal rights and protection of life, property and honour.

Akram Masih Gill, a Christian member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, endorsed Khan’s views, saying that minorities were facing “toughest time ever”.

“We (non-Muslim Pakistanis) are being pushed into a blind alley. We are left with fewer options. It seems no political party has any framework for the protection and rights of minorities,” Masih warned.

There was no response by the government, although the PPP has lately been championing the cause of minorities’ rights.

Another PPP stalwart Nawab Yousuf Talpur was also among those who sensitised the government against a trend among Hindu communities to seek shelter with their relatives in India.

“They are leaving Pakistan…they don’t believe that the state can protect them anymore,” Talpur added.

Earlier, a female member of the Awami National Party (ANP) called for penalising elements who stopped women from casting vote in last week’s by-election in one of the provincial assembly seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Last month, former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was killed for supporting a woman accused of committing blasphemy.

Non-performing loans

Responding to a call-attention notice, a government representative told the house that 14 per cent of the total loans by commercial banks are non-performing. State Finance Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, however, said these commercial banks were run by independent boards of governors and the government had little or no control over them.

The responsibility of the State Bank is restricted to just standardising procedures in case of write-offs, rescheduling or declaring bad loans, she said.

Khar attributed country risk, insecurity, energy shortage and global recession as major reasons behind a surge in the proportion of non-performing or ‘bad’ loans.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2011.