LAHORE: The launching ceremony of the project titled “Harmonious, Tolerant and Safe Punjab” was organized by the Ministry of Human Rights, Minorities Affairs and Interfaith Harmony in collaboration with Youth Development Foundation (YDF) at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club on Saturday. The ceremony was attended by representatives from different walks of life including government officials, lawyers, media personnel, academics, youth, rights activists and so on.
The project is about the formulation of an Interfaith Harmony policy that provides a framework and guidelines on how to promote diversity and a sense of security and ownership for all in the province. It also aims to create an environment where people from different religious, ethnic, sectoral and linguistic backgrounds can co-exist without fear and contribute to the progress of the country. The project entails in-depth consultations with multiple stakeholders including religious leaders, civil society representatives, youth, students, academia etc. in which they will be asked to give suggestions and recommendations to be incorporated into the policy.
On this occasion, Ejaz Alam Augustine, Punjab Minister for Human Rights, Minorities Affairs and Interfaith Harmony addressed the audience and expressed hope that the proposed policy would go a long way in making Punjab a home for all where they will enjoy equal rights and have a sense of security. He said the project fell very much in line with the spirit of the initiatives that the Punjab government had already taken to promote interfaith harmony in the province. He said minorities were enjoying equal rights in the province and the government was highly vigilant when it came to safeguarding these. Whenever there is a conflict or fear of conflict, the government comes into action immediately and handles the situation in the best possible way. The minister said the government will ensure social justice and fair distribution of socio-economic resources in order to promote tolerance and co-existence in the society and eliminate the sense of insecurity and injustice among the religious minorities.
Shahid Rehmat, Executive Director, YDF, gave a brief introduction of the project. He shared it with the audience that the federal government had devolved Ministry of Interfaith Harmony to provincial administrative units in April 2019 and till date, Punjab government had not yet come up with any concrete policy/guidelines for the newly devolved ministry. Under this project, he said, a comprehensive consultative exercise will be carried out with multiple stakeholders to devise a policy that can help the ministry pursue the objective of creating interfaith harmony effectively.
Alexander John Malik, Bishop of Lahore, stressed the need for having an Interfaith Harmony Policy that the policymakers and the citizens could follow to create a healthy and violence-free environment in the society. It will be a highly valuable document because of the collective wisdom going into it, he added.
There was a unanimous resolution among participants that all religions teach peace and forbid maltreatment of people of other beliefs. People of a country share equal responsibility, along with the state, of protection of lives, property and honour of all of its citizens. MPA Saadia Suhail, social activist Irfan Mufti, Bishop Irfan Jameel, Hindu Community leader Amarnaath Randhawa, MNA Shunila Ruth and others also spoke on the occasion.
