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, prior to its visit, had suggested it would propose a new draft law be put in place to better protect all minority groups in the country, while taking particular note of the Hazara situation with over a thousand Hazaras killed in targeted attacks over the past seven years or so. The community is obviously under severe stress with hundreds killed in bombings in Quetta since 2010. The Senate Committee will meet with Chief Minister of Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch to share their ideas. They will also speak with the relatives of missing people and Hazaras who have been killed. Ms Jalil has also said more needs to be done for members of non-Baloch communities who have been attacked and injured in Balochistan and are now struggling to survive. There have been a series of attacks on non-Baloch persons travelling through or living in the province.Certainly, the human rights conditions in Balochistan need to be addressed. But it is uncertain if any law alone can solve the problems that currently exist. A broader approach is also required, although of course a specific law can help strengthen the hands of the government and the police. What is most essential of all is to create greater awareness and promote tolerance in a society where hatred continues to flourish. The Senate Committee, which says it plans to put forward its proposals for new legislation to the law ministry, needs to think about this too and examine a wider approach to the entire issue of minorities in our country and of human rights violations directed against them. The task is no longer an easy one and involves many different factors.
pk.shafaqna.com
Hazara killings: Would senate committee deliberations be acted upon?
