The Muslim Times’ Editor for Pakistan
Credit: Daily Times
Friday, March 02, 2012
LAHORE: The Pakistan government has failed to protect religious minorities from systematic campaigns of violence and vilification, Amnesty International said on the first anniversary of the assassination of minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti.
The only Christian member of the federal cabinet and one of a handful of Pakistan’s leading politicians to call for changes to the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, Bhatti died after armed men opened fire on his car in Islamabad.
“Pakistani officials should honour Bhatti’s legacy by challenging the systematic campaign of vilification and attacks on minorities,” said Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi.
Although Shahbaz’s brother Dr Paul Bhatti was made a special adviser to the president for religious minorities after his death, no one has replaced him as minister for minorities.
“The ministerial post remains vacant at this critical time, a sad reflection of the government’s inaction in the face of continued violence against minorities,” he added.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed the responsibility for killing Bhatti over his criticism of the country’s blasphemy laws – British-era criminal sanctions that were amended in the 1980s under the rule of Gen Ziaul Haq, making it an offence to defile the holy Quran or Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) punishable by life imprisonment or death respectively.
The word minority is curse it should taken out from the consititution. Pakistani citizen term be used for all Pakistanis without any discrimination the only way forward to save the country and it’s fabric, mullahs will not like it.