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Minorities enjoying

full rights: Salik

NEW YORK: Julius Salik, Federal Minister for Population Planning and Welfare, has said that minorities in Pakistan are fully enjoying their rights, which were securely protected by the constitutional provisions.

The Minister was addressing a gathering of Pakistani community at a function organised by Pakistan League of Americas here on Saturday afternoon.

Salik said that the only setback for the minorities in Pakistan was the introduction of separate electorate by the martial law regime, which had induced in them a sense of deprivation.

He strongly advocated the introduction of joint electorate, as provided in the original 1973 Constitution, to re-establish the concept of Pakistani nationhood as envisaged by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He said he was sure that this issue would also be settled very soon.

Salik said that the fabric of Pakistani nationhood had been destroyed by martial law, elections on non-party basis and sectarianism. It was time to promote unity among all Pakistani people whether they be Muslims or Christians.

The Minister said that present Government in Pakistan was sincerely engaged in settling all problems, including that of Karachi. He said he was sure that ultimately the dialogue on Karachi would prove conclusive for the benefit of the country.

Salik strongly criticised the western media which are unnecessarily trying to project minorities in Pakistan as a persecuted and hounded community. Nothing, he said, was further from truth. In fact, he said, western media were trying to tarnish Pakistan's image to destroy its exports of carpets and other hand-made goods, in which production the Christian minorities were largely involved.

This, he said, was an international conspiracy hatched by Pakistan's enemies, including India.

Julius Salik said that the western and the India media had been trying to make a mountain out of a trivial matter of his complaint against Pakistan consulate. He said he had never said that he had been treated with indignity, but the western and Indian media had tried to give a wrong colour to his comments to say that all minorities, including their minister, were being maltreated. "Nothing", he declared, "could be more wrong."

Salik said that development and community work should be left to the local bodies, and the federal and provincial legislators should concentrate only on law making, a work which had been sadly ignored during the long martial law years. This, he said, was the only way to fill the wide gap left by eleven years of martial law.

Salik, who in the United States for the past to weeks, said he had met a number of representatives of the opinion-making organisations to explain the true state in which the minorities were living in Pakistan.

He said that there should be better coordination between the Foreign Office and Pakistan missions abroad so that the Iqbal Masih case could be explained in its true perspective.

Office-bearers of the Pakistan League of Americas Dr. Shafi Bezar, Shafqat Tanvir and Ramzan Rana also spoke on the occasion.

Later, the federal minister left for Oslo for a two-day visit to Norway, from where he will reach Pakistan on August 14.-APP