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GTI’MUN 21PNASTUDY GUIDETOPIC AREA A :Freedom and Rights of Minorities inPakistan

Introduction to the PNAPakistan National Assembly belongs to the lower house of the Pakistani Parliament.Its members are elected by the people of Pakistan through the voting system. ThePNA holds the responsible to look over the important decisions to be made onbehalf of the country, to ensure that the executives are working properly and thatnone of the rights of Pakistani citizens are being violated. This committee goesthrough options and potential ventures for the progress of Pakistan, they discusspasses or debates on bills, laws etc. PNA was founded in 1973. The NationalAssembly which is Pakistan's sovereign legislative body, makes laws for thefederation under powers spelled out in the federal legislative List and also forsubjects in the concurrent List, as given in the fourth schedule of the Constitution.Through its Debates, Adjournment Motion, Question hour and StandingCommittees, the National Assembly keeps check over the Executive and ensuresthat the government functions within the parameters set out in the Constitution anddo not violate the fundamental rights of citizens. Only the National Assembly(through its Public Accounts Committee) scrutinizes public spending and exercisescontrol of expenditure incurred by the government.

Introduction to the agendaThe Islamic Republic of Pakistan became an independent sovereign state on 14August 1947. Pakistan was formed with the aim to fulfil the right to selfdetermination of India’s Muslims, on the basis of a “two-nation theory” whichdescribed Hindus and Muslims as two different nations living in India. The creationof Pakistan meant carving out a state encompassing Muslim majority areas from thesubcontinent, which resulted in massive transfers of Hindu, Sikh and Muslimpopulations from areas where they were in the minority, often to provinces wherethey constituted a clear majority. When Pakistan was created its pluralisticcomposition was recognized by its founding fathers and also appears on its flag, thewhite patch in the Pakistani flag symbolizes the nation’s religious minoritycommunities. Mohammad Ali Jinnah one of the founding fathers of Pakistan andrecognized as Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam on the occasion of his first speech beforethe members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1947, clearly declared thatnon-Muslims would be equal citizens in the new country and that every personliving in the country was an equal citizen irrespective of his or her community,caste, color or faith. In the 1970s, several elements culminated to contribute to arise in violent attacks against minority groups in Pakistan: a scramble for power byPakistan’s political parties led to even more instrumentalisation of religiousdivisions in society; the instrumentalization of discrimination of minorities intolegislation by the Islamist governments who came to power; and the militarizationof the region, with a proliferation of arms and trained fighters turning to violence tosettle conflicts. By the 1980s, violent sectarian attacks, especially targeting the Shiaand Ahmadi communities, became ever more commonplace. Among the attackstargeting Shias, those against the Hazaras in Balochistan are noteworthy. Theseattacks, which began during General Zia ul Haq’s regime in the 1980s, havecontinued over the subsequent decades, exacerbated by the proliferation of antiShia armed groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangv, Al-Qaeda, and Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan. Between January 2001 and October 2011, at least 386 violent murders ofHazaras were reported, and these attacks continue today.

On 10 January 2013, more than 100 Hazaras were killed and 121 injured in twinblasts in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. The attacks were supposedlycommitted by the Lashkar-e-Jhangv. The Ahmadi community in Pakistan is also atarget of violent attacks. The attacks against Ahmadis have escalated since the2000s when unknown men opened fire at an Ahmadi place of worship in a villagein Sialkot. One of the largest attacks targeting Ahmadis took place on 28 May 2010,when a coordinated attack on two Ahmadi places of worship by the Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan killed over 80 people.

Discrimination of Minorities under the Constitution and the LawThe Constitution of Pakistan, in article 25 (1), guarantees that “all citizens are equalbefore law and are entitled to equal protection of law.” Article 5 provides that“adequate provision shall be made for the minorities to freely profess and practicetheir religions and develop their cultures,” and article 33 declares that it is thestate’s responsibility to discourage parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian, and provincialprejudices among citizens. However, these provisions have never been fullyimplemented in practice, and are contradicted by other provisions of theConstitution. Firstly, article 2 declares that “Islam shall be the State religion ofPakistan,” and article 31 states that it is the government’s duty to foster the Islamicway of life. Article 41(2) provides that “a person shall not be qualified for electionas President unless he is a Muslim,” and article 227 (1) states that “all existing lawsshall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in theHoly Qur’an and Sunnah, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and nolaw shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions.” Even article 20 of theConstitution, which enshrines every citizen’s “right to profess, practice andpropagate his religion” and that “every religious denomination and every sectthereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religiousinstitutions”, is “subject to law, public order and morality,” and is thus contradictedin law and practice when it comes to the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan.Supposedly to prevent discrimination in employment in the public sector, a quotasystem was put in place during the regime of General Zia Ul Haq, reserving fivepercent of public sector jobs for minorities, and the other 95% of jobs being on thebasis of open merit including minority candidates. However, in practice this systemdoes little for affirmative action, and in fact exacerbates social discrimination andstereotypes against minorities. This is because many municipalities fill their fivepercent quota by employing only minorities in undesirable positions such assanitation workers. In some communities there have even been reports ofannouncements for such jobs indicating that Muslims need not apply. When thecountry of Pakistan was created, many non-Muslim communities left their homes inareas that were to become Pakistani territory to live in India. During this suddenexodus, they left behind many properties and land, including temples and places ofworship and land with religious symbolism. Soon after independence, a trust wasestablished under federal law, called the Evacuee Trust Property Board, to manage

the property, notably places of worship, that were left behind by non-Muslimcommunities. Although this Board is entrusted with the upkeep and protection ofsuch properties and does not have the right to sell any of these properties, much ofthe land under the Board’s control has been left uncared for, has been occupied,and/or sold. This is notably the case for properties belonging to the Hinducommunity. In Hyderabad alone, of the 350 temples and gurdawaras, only betweenfive to ten are privately managed, the rest were either occupied or have been sold.Only one temple is currently still maintained by the Evacuee Trust Property Board.In Sindh, most of the burial places that belonged to the Shudras and theuntouchables, have been taken over by Muslims, and Hindus belonging to lowercastes were not allowed to bury their dead there. The Evacuee Trust Property Boardhas evidently failed to fulfil its management and upkeep mandate, allowing manyplaces of worship to fall into disrepair and ignoring squatters on the land under theirpurvey. There have also been accusations of active collusion: the last Chair of theBoard, Mr. Asif Hashmi, is accused of having illegally sold property under theBoard’s control. The representation of minorities in assemblies in Pakistan remainsweak. While the National Assembly was reformed in 2002, increasing the totalnumber of seats to 342, the number of seats reserved for minority representativeswas not increased and remains at ten. A proposed constitution amendment bill wasmoved in the National Assembly in January 2014 seeking an increase in therepresentation of minorities in the national and provincial legislatures. However, inNovember the government rejected the proposal, claiming that such an increase ofseats reserved for minorities at the National Assembly, the Senate and theProvincial Assemblies was not possible until a new population census wasconducted.

Discrimination of Minorities in EducationDiscrimination prevails in the context of admissions to colleges and universities.Several higher education institutions implement a quota system that disadvantagesnon-Muslim students. For instance, at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad,each department may only enroll a total of two non-Muslim students. Even if a nonMuslim student achieves high enough scores to be admitted to the University, theyare refused admission if they fall beyond the quota, and the University will insteadadmit a Muslim student with a lower merit score. A newly launched report oneducation and inequality has found alarming levels of discrimination in educationalinstitutions based on religion, faith or belief. The report “Education and Inequality:Discerning the Foundation of Citizenry”, was organized by the SustainableDevelopment Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad. The report was jointlyconducted by The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and TheInstitute of Development Research and Corresponding Capabilities (IDRAC).The study was conducted in five districts of Punjab, including Bahawalpur, Multan,Khanewal, Nankana Sahib and Gujranwala, where around 200 non-Muslimstudents, 40 teachers and 40 parents were consulted to collect the data.The report showed that around 60 per cent of non-Muslim students experience orfeel that they are discriminated and disrespected, whereas, 70 per cent of the nonMuslim teachers faced discrimination on account of their faith. Similarly, 72% ofparents reported that their children were discriminated in educational institutions onaccount of their faith. In 2009, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child notedwith concern reports of children of religious minorities having been restricted instudying and practicing their religion, and urged the government of Pakistan toensure that children have the choice whether or not to participate in religiouseducation classes. The committee also condemned the “persistence ofdiscriminatory societal attitudes and discrimination against children belonging to[inter alia] a religious group” in Pakistan, and issued several recommendations tothe Pakistani authorities to address this problem. To date, these issues still persistand the government has yet to implement the Committee’s recommendations.