Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah has said that speeches of Ulema fanning sectarianism on Eid-ul-Azha will be recorded and monitored through CCTV cameras. He said that in view of security, no vehicle would be allowed to go up to mosques or Eidgahs. He expressed these views while presiding over a meeting of cabinet sub-committee on law and order at Civil Secretariat today.
Rana Sanaullah said that there was a ban on provocative speeches at mosques, therefore, action will be taken as per law against Ulema violating the ban. He said that it was the responsibility of local DCOs and TMAs to install cameras at cattle markets. He directed that sweeping of mosques and Eidgahs should be ensured before Eid prayers. In order to make sure that Eid for people is peaceful, the law minister has also arranged for snipers to be deployed on the roofs of sensitive buildings. He said that no comprise would be made on the security of ‘important personalities’ during Eid prayers and necessary security will be provided to them.This order is part of the full-scale crackdown on the proscribed organisations, initiated in the backdrop of the brutal assassination of late Punjab home minister Shuja Khanzada last month. Such efforts should be applauded, where it is essential that the government provides extra security in times of threat.With Section 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act stating a ‘prohibition of acts intended or likely to stir up sectarian violence’, the federal government has asked the provinces, apart from making laws to curb rampant hate speech and heaps of extremist material within their remit, to make sure that there was no abuse of the loudspeaker, which most extremists, posing as religious scholars, employed as an effective tool to brainwash young minds. Given the delay and unreliability caused by the ATC’s it is also necessary to make hate speech an issue in the public sphere and the print and digital media, one that can help shape a very necessary but forsaken debate.An Annual report 2015 of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has highlighted the menace of sectarian and religious discrimination. Some excerpts of the report are enough to blemish an already blotted image of Pakistan. The report reads “Pakistan represents one of the worst situations in the world for religious freedom. In a country, where authorities continue to enforce blasphemy laws, regulations designed to marginalise the Ahmadiyya and Shia community and on various occasions restrict religious freedom, one can see that even if this monitoring of religious sermons might be done with a ‘noble’ intention, it still does not tackle the root cause of intolerance in Pakistan. Frankly, a more nuanced system of accountability for hate crimes and hate speech is needed.
pk.shafaqna.com
