‘Dormant’ NCM invites minority lawmakers’ ire

Accuse chairman of deliberately avoiding commission

ISLAMABAD: Minority lawmakers, especially those who are members of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), on Tuesday criticised Federal Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf for ‘unnecessary’ delay in holding the commission’s meeting.

The NCM was constituted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment on the minorities’ rights in 2014. Sardar Yousaf was made the chairman of the commission that have eleven members – among them four belong to minorities.

The criticism came during a consultative dialogue titled: “Preserving Equal Citizenship in Pakistan”, organised by JUI-F minority lawmaker Asiya Nasir who belongs to Balochistan.

The minority lawmakers expressed serious concern over unnecessary delay in holding meetings of the commission. The delay is holding back the finalisation of a comprehensive policy on the minorities’ rights.

The commission is to formulate the policy and send it to the cabinet division so that the marginalised segments of society could be protected in the country from being victimised, explained Nasir, who hosted the dialogue which is attended by people from different walks of life.

“For the last six months the chairman has not summoned a single meeting of the commission which is ‘surprising’ for the minorities,” Nasir, who believed that the minorities’ rights are protected only in the constitution, said.

The lawmaker said the apex court announced the landmark decision that should be implemented, and added unfortunately, the chairman seems least interested in pursuing the goals for which the commission was constituted.

By the end of this year, the commission is supposed to send the policy to the cabinet division for approval, but the minister did not call a single meeting for the last six months as after the approval of the policy the commission will have a proper legal cover, explained the lawmaker.

Nasir claimed that she had opposed the nomination of the minister for the post because she believed that an independent person could properly run the commission. The lawmaker told The Express Tribune that the chairman was ‘deliberately’ avoiding the commission and remained busy in taking care of his ‘personal’ issues or those related to his ministry.

PPP minority lawmaker Ramesh Lal, who is also the member of the committee, also held the same view. He criticised the NCM chairman who, according to him, remained busy in his Haj-related matters.

Since the commission was constituted, only three or four meetings have been held that shows the seriousness the chairman has been giving to the commission, said Lal, who said he would raise the issue in parliament’s next session scheduled for September 2. He said minority lawmakers cannot afford more delays, as this is a question of minorities living in the country.

The apex court had noted that people generally not totally aware of the rights enjoyed by minority communities in the country, and those entrusted with the enforcement of the laws dealing with the minorities’ issues are also not fully sensitised either.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2016.