Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today announced a special package of Rs500 million for Hindu community living in Sindh. Nawaz, while felicitating the Hindu community on Holi, said Pakistan was not created on the basis of religious differences but to address religious persecution.No matter which religion or area you belong to. Every Pakistani should have equal opportunity to be a part of this growth, he added. Holi, he said, is a message of love. “Any religious person without love is like a flower without colour. This Holi gathering has brought a lot of warmth with it.” The prime minister’s speech quoted Iqbal’s famous Allahabad address and echoed Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s address to the nation on August 11, 1947 in which he stressed religious harmony. The Holi ceremony was organised by Sindh’s Hindu Panchayat Committee and minority wing of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).In most democracies, the head of government attending a religious minority’s festival, acknowledging their role in the country, and reassuring them about the future, would be natural, if not the bare minimum.But Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s address on to mark a Holi event organized by the local Hindu community in Karachi was historic for doing all of the above; such has been the level of discrimination against the minorities, and the rulers’ appeasement – if not endorsement – of Islamist supremacists in Pakistan. Nawaz had already become the first Pakistani premier to attend a Diwali event in 2015, where he called himself the “prime minister of all religious communities.” the prime minister said that things have greatly improved since 2013, particularly in reference to the decrease in reports of abduction of members from the Hindu community, many of whom were business owners.The prime minister appeared in a celebratory and jovial mood. He said that he was so happy to be there. The energy, the passion, the fervour was amazing in this hall.The PM did well by attending in religious festival Holi. He also stated categorically that no one can force any member of a minority community to convert and that his government was committed to implementing legal and constitutional safeguards meant for minorities. The remarks are important as these come at a time when the Sindh Assembly passed a bill criminalising forced conversion while the National Assembly passed a widely hailed legislation aimed at regulating Hindu marriages. These would help protect rights and interests of Hindus, affording them an opportunity to play their due role in national life with full peace of mind and devotion. Hindus constitute only a fraction of the country’s population but it is appreciable that, along with other minorities, they have adequate representation not only in provincial assemblies, National Assembly and the Senate but also in the Federal Cabinet as well as in local bodies that really matter in resolution of problems at gross-roots. All this is in sharp contrast to ground realities in India where, according to a latest US Congressional report, hate crimes against minorities, their social boycotts and forced conversions have increased significantly since 2014.
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