Progress needed urgently on Tassaduq Jilani judgement

Lahore, 3 June 2019. Human rights activists gathered on the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 2014 landmark judgement on the rights of religious minorities, at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) here today.

Members of civil society – including representatives of the Centre for Social Justice, the National Commission for Justice and Peace, and the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation – expressed their concern that, despite the lapse of five years, no real progress has taken place on implementing this judgement, except for the establishment of the one-man Suddle Commission, whose report is still awaited.

Given the significance of the Tassusuq Jilani judgement in protecting religious freedoms, among other fundamental rights, HRCP earlier filed a public interest litigation with the assistance of allied organisations, requesting the Supreme Court to take note of the matter. The application recorded the status of implementation of directives issued in the judgment.

The Tassusuq Jilani judgement lays the foundation for the realisation of religious minorities’ rights. If this basic benchmark for the rights of minorities cannot be implemented, then the state’s claims concerning the protection of minority rights seem meaningless.

Dr Mehdi Hasan

Chairperson