Pakistan: Rights groups reject summary for formation of ‘sham commission on minorities’

The federal cabinet is set to discuss a summary moved by the Ministry of Religious Affairs which is suggesting the setting up a National Commission for Minorities (NCM), media reports said.

They criticised the religious affairs ministry for proposing the names of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders from the Hindu community for the commission. They said the federal government wanted to make the commission a minority-wing of the ruling party, The News International reported.

Prominent minority rights groups, including the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the Peoples’ Commission for Minorities Rights (PCMR), the Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation, and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, in a joint statement, said the summary for setting up the NCM had failed to meet the intention of the verdict of the Supreme Court passed on June 19, 2014, and the precedent that existed for the establishment of the National Commission for Human Rights, the Commission on the Rights of Child, and the National Commission on Status of Women, reported the newspaper.

I A Rehman, Peter Jacob, Michelle Chaudhry and Advocate Kalpana Devi – office-bearers of minority right groups have said the commission was being established in violation of the standards set out in the Paris Principles by the UN.

“The move is a blatant aberration from the orders No. 4 of para 37 of Supreme Court passed on 19 June 2014 (SC SMC 1/2014) by a bench headed by the then Chief Justice Tassauq Hussain Jillani. It stated that a national council for minorities rights be constituted. The function of the said council should inter alia be to monitor the practical realisation of the rights and safeguards provided to the minorities under the constitution and law. The council should also be mandated to frame policy recommendations for safeguarding and protecting minorities’ rights by the provincial and federal government," they said as quoted by the Pakistani newspaper.

PCMR chairman Peter Jacob  said the move will not be accepted.

“According to the UN guidelines for human rights institutions (Paris Principles), anyone holding a political office cannot be part of this Commission. These Commissions should reflect a political consensus between government and opposition as provided for the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission Act No. XVI of 2012,” he was quoted as saying by The News International.

“Setting up yet another body without powers and resources will defeat the purpose, therefore, we reject this tokenism,” Jacob said.

Kheal Das Kohistani, an MNA from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said the religious affairs ministry should bring the issue of the formation of the NCM for a discussion in the parliament.

“The PML-N believes in the parliament’s supremacy and that’s why it opposes the setting up of the commission for not taking the parliament into confidence,” Kohistani told The News International.

According to the government notification issued to announce the members of the national minorities body, the religious ministry has proposed Chela Ram Kewlani from the Hindu community to be the commission’s chairman, reported the newspaper.