Interfaith harmony: Nawaz pledges to safeguard rights of all citizens

Insists Pakistan was created as a hub of peace for region

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged on Sunday to ensure that all citizens are granted equal rights in adherence with the Constitution and the teachings of Islam.

In his message on the occasion of Holi, the premier extended his felicitations to the Hindu community of Pakistan.

"The circumstances in Pakistan are changing. The days of spring are coming for which the basis of interfaith peace and coexistence were laid. Pakistan was created as a hub of peace not only for Muslims but also every tribe and community living in the region," he said.

Nawaz said the government would make arrangements to disallow any discrimination in the name of religion and the followers of every religion must feel free to practise their own faiths.

The citizens should also not suffer from any sense of deprivation regarding employment or any other matter due to their faith, he added.

He viewed that Holi heralds the onset of spring and brings along with it a message of hope for a better future.

“This festival also gives good news that the societies also improve just like the winter turning into the spring season,” he added.

Nawaz Sharif also cited the speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on August 11, 1947, in which he  made it clear that there would be no discrimination on the basis of faith in the country.

He stressed that the state was bound to fulfil the commitment the Quaid had made to the minorities in that address without tolerating any laxity in this regard, he added.

The premier said the nation recognised the role of the Hindu community for the country's development and lauded the passion of the minorities.

In the past, he said, minority groups and communities had suffered at the hands of miscreants, just like other people of the country. It was unfortunate that militants had misused the name of Islam which equates the killing of one human to the killing of all humanity and considered the saving of one life equal to saving all of mankind.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2017.