{"id":5390,"date":"2020-08-10T18:35:01","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T18:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrcp-web.org\/hrcpweb\/?p=5390"},"modified":"2021-09-30T18:35:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T18:35:43","slug":"pakistan-must-honour-pledge-in-jinnahs-11-august-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcp-web.org\/hrcpweb\/pakistan-must-honour-pledge-in-jinnahs-11-august-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan must honour pledge in Jinnah\u2019s 11 August speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pakistan must honour pledge in Jinnah\u2019s 11 August speech<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lahore, 11 August<\/em>. Observing National Minorities Day, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that both state and society must be true to Mr Jinnah\u2019s vision of a country in which religion or belief was a personal matter and no basis for differences of citizenship.<\/p>\n

Seventy-three years after this historic speech, Pakistan\u2019s religious minorities continue to be relegated to the status of second-class citizens, vulnerable to inherent discriminatory practices, forced conversions, and faith-based violence.<\/p>\n

On National Minorities Day, HRCP calls on the state to implement the 2014 Supreme Court judgment, which protects the right to manifest one\u2019s religion or belief in private or public free of coercion. A bold and pivotal step would be to modify the Constitution to reflect Mr Jinnah\u2019s 11 August speech, which\u2014as an address to the first Constituent Assembly\u2014should be treated as policy direction rather than political rhetoric.<\/p>\n

HRCP demands that the government set up an autonomous statutory national commission for minorities\u2019 rights to replace the ineffectual National Commission for Minorities reconstituted earlier this year. The Single National Curriculum, which violates the constitutional guarantee that no member of a religious minority will be required to \u2018receive religious instruction\u2019 not relevant to their own religion, must be revised to reflect that a uniform standard of education is not the same as a uniform curriculum. HRCP also demands that the controversial and divisive Tahafuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam bill in Punjab be retracted, and the federal and provincial governments refrain from law-making that infringes any community\u2019s right to freedom of religion or belief.<\/p>\n

On behalf\u00a0of Dr Mehdi Hasan
\nChairperson<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>