A Senate committee would take up next week the issue of the killings of Hazara community members in Pakistan and discuss how a fresh piece of legislation might help protect religious minorities in the country. According to official records, an estimated 1,456 members of the Hazara community have lost their lives in different areas of Balochistan in the past seven years. For the first time, a group of senators will meet the affected families in Quetta. The committee on human rights, headed by Senator Nasreen Jalil of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, will also meet government functionaries from the areas where people have gone missing in Quetta, according to an agenda posted on the Senate website. The committee is also likely to take up with officials of the law enforcement agencies another key issue of the discovery of mass graves in Balochistan. The committee will prepare its recommendations on how the government can deliberate upon fresh legislation to protect the minority communities facing persecution, the officials said. These suggestions will be shared with the ministry of law and justice and human rights and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).The purpose behind the setting up of the committee is of course something we welcome. We desperately need measures to keep marginalised groups in our country safe. They have come under attack more and more frequently as a result of the growth of extremism and the impact it has had across the country. In Quetta, the committee members will meet affected families, Hazara leaders and government officials before devising the draft for a law which will then be discussed with the ministry for law and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.We wish the senators every success. But it is important to keep in mind that laws cannot in themselves change realities. The fact is that the murder of Hazaras and other marginalised groups is a result of the rapid growth of hatred and violence in a society that has become increasingly fragmented. The fear then is that any law will count for nothing more than a cosmetic measure. This would be an injustice. We need much more than that in order to change the fate of the diverse groups living in our country and make it a place where they enjoy equal rights and equal security as citizens.
pk.shafaqna.com
Committee on Hazara killings: A dim optimism
