Pakistan’s war on minorities continues -Governance Now

Pakistan’s war on minorities continues

Islamabad plans townships to make ethnic Baloch and Sindhis a minority in their own land

GN Bureau | June 24, 2017

#UNHCR #Gwadar port #Hindu #Sindh #Baloch #Islamabad #Pakistan #Nepal #army

Zulfiqar Shah

The Baloch Regiment of Pakistan Army doesn’t have ethnic Baloch and the Sindh Regiment is with no Sindhis; this is the way Pakistan treats its religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities. This was revealed by Zulfiqar Shah, a Sindhi human rights campaigner who has been forced out of his country for his activism, at a conference on the condition of minorities in the neighbouring country.

According to Shah, the presence of Sindhis and Baloch in the two regiments of Pakistan army named after the ethnic groups is less than 1 percent.

Shah’s Institute for Social Movements was forcibly closed by the government and he had to take refuge first in Nepal and now in India.

Speaking at the conference of human rights of minorities in Pakistan by the Asia-Eurasia Human rights forum on Friday in Delhi, Shah said ethnic and religious minorities were facing the worst persecution in Pakistan. He said in Sindh, which has a sizeable population of Hindus (35% at the time of partition), the government was unleashing systematic persecution of the community.

Islamabad was also trying to make massive demographic changes in both Balochistan and Sindh to make the ethnic Baloch and Sindhis a minority in their own land. For example, he said, in Sindh, the government had launched two ambitious township projects where outsiders – mainly Punjabis would be settled. Similarly, another city at Gwadar port in Balochistan will be filled with settlers from Punjab, making the Baloch a minority.

Shah was forced to flee from Pakistan and take shelter with the UNHCR in Nepal after his institute was closed down and he felt the threat to his life. Even during his stay in Nepal, he said, the ISI tried to poison him and then he fled to India. He has been living in Delhi for four years and campaigns for the rights of minorities in Pakistan.

He told the gathering that the discrimination against the non-Punjabi speaking people is sanctioned by the government. “There are no jobs for Sindhis and even their language is not recognised.” He gave figures to show how Pakistan’s Punjab province used the bulk of the Sui gas (cooking gas) which originates in Sindh, while the local are deprived of it.

Ahmadiyas, who have been declared heretic by the Pakistani government, are not allowed to practice their religion. They are even barred from decorating their homes on Eid-ul-Milad-ul-Nabi (Prophet Mohammad’s birthday). He said Christians were being persecuted under the blasphemy law, while Hindus were facing pressure for conversion to Islam.

Comments

Other News

`Low-cost Carboplatin boosts survival in aggressive breast cancer`

Adding the inexpensive chemotherapy drug Carboplatin to standard treatment significantly improves survival in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a clinical trial at the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in Mumbai has found. TNBC is an aggressive form of breast cancer and lacks

Recalling the ‘start-up’ days of a global security services firm

A quiet transformation began in Patna in 1973 when a young journalist, Dr. R.K. Sinha, inspired by the heartfelt appeal of social reformer Jayaprakash Narayan to support ex-servicemen, made a bold decision to leave his Rs 250-a-month job that led to the creation of Security and Intelligence Services (SIS).

Financing India’s Green Shift: The Rise of ESG Investing

The environment is important for everything in our lives, whether at home, in school, or any other place of work and engagement. After all, given the concerns the planet is witnessing, finding solutions is becoming tougher. In India right now, as in any other part of the world, even though there is enough

India moves up to 9th position globally in forest area

India has achieved a significant milestone in global environmental conservation, moving up to the 9th position in terms of total forest area globally, as per the Global Forest Resources Assessment (GFRA) 2025, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Bali. Union Minis

“Game” of cricket: Governance lessons from India’s favourite sport

India’s cricket journey is more than a record of sporting triumphs; it is a live case study in strategy, incentives, and equilibrium: the very foundations of Game Theory. As India prepares for its eight-match white-ball series against Australia, the world’s most-watched rivalry will again unfol

In this year of extreme rainfall, climate change has amplified deluge

Southwest Monsoon 2025 recently concluded with ‘above-normal’ rainfall to the tune of 108% of the long-period average (LPA). This is second consecutive year in the last decade to record above normal rains. Climate change has a critical role in driving the rainfall on the higher side, according