IHC verdict requiring faith affidavits to be challenged

Minister says govt deems all citizens equal, cannot allow discrimination on basis of beliefs

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Ali Zafar has announced that the government is all set to challenge the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict which, according to him, is against religious freedom and rights of minorities in Pakistan.

“The government deems all its citizens equal and we cannot allow any sort of discrimination on the basis of belief and religion towards any citizen.  The religion is an individual choice and the government is all set to challenge a recent IHC decision that is quite discriminatory in nature,” Zafar said on Tuesday

He was speaking at a consultative meeting on ‘Minority Rights, Freedom of Religion or Belief: ‘Faith for Rights’, organised by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and the Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (Poda) in collaboration with European Union (EU).

The IHC on March 10 made it compulsory to submit faith affidavit while applying for all government, semi-government institutions, including judiciary, armed forces and civil services.  It also made submission of faith affidavit for getting CNICs, passport, birth certificate, entry in voters list.



The federal minister said Pakistan is not the only country facing religious extremism as it has become a global issue now. He said rise in poverty and illiteracy is fueling terrorism. “The extremism in Pakistan thrived as an aftermath of Afghan War,” he said.

Zafar said in the past few people came in to forefront who tried to enforce their opinions on others. It was about time to discourage such people and stop there thinking to affect general people, he said.

Anne Marchal, the EU’s representative in Pakistan, said the GSP+ Status to Pakistan is linked with ensuring the implementation of 27 HR convocations. The NCHR representative Shafique Chaudary said, “Our efforts are aimed at ending all sort of discrimination including political and cultural.”

Fazila Aliani, NCHR member from Balochistan, said: “We need to change the context of viewing the situation of human rights. Hence, it should be a permanent question how the abuse and violations of human rights is continued despite of our efforts at various levels.”

Later representatives belonging to various minorities lamented that mixing religion with politics in Pakistan has resulted as numerous problems for religious minorities. The said religion is being used for vested interest by many interest groups in Pakistan and, hence, causing sufferings to minorities.

A human rights activist Kapel Dev said the government should discourage use of this word ‘ghair Muslim/non-Muslim in order to put an end to discrimination.

He said representation of religious minorities in parliament should be enhanced and awareness at societal level should be enhanced based on the ideals of peace, co-existence and tolerance.