Commission on minorities rights approaches SC

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court’s one-man Commission on Minorities Rights headed by Dr Shoaib Suddle on Thursday approached the apex court to inquire about the status of National Minorities Commission (NMC) formed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA).

The petition filed by the commission registrar Abdullah Shah claimed that the commission had constantly been facing defiance and non-cooperation from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. 

The commission recently found out that the MORA moved a summary for the Cabinet to reconstitute an existing National Commission for Minorities and “it did not consult the commission in defiance of the court’s October 3, 2019 order,” the petition added.

“The body proposed by the MoRA violates the commitment made before the court. It does not have a statutory backing and its very existence and composition would be at the whims and mercy of MORA,” it pointed out. “Since its claimed existence there is nothing on record to show that it did anything of note in relation to the rights of the minorities. In fact, the minority communities are not even aware of the existence of such a body.”

The petition stated that there was a wider consensus among minority leaders and groups that the National Council for Minorities should be an independent statutory body with full administrative and financial autonomy. 

He pleaded the court to withdraw the notification and take the one-man commission into confidence before the formation of such a commission.