Conditions of minorities in Pakistan

The condition of minorities in Pakistan is similar to that of the Afghan refugees. Like Afghan refugees, minorities in Pakistan have faced numerous challenges and difficulties over the years, including struggles to access basic services such as education, healthcare, and employment opportunities, Afghan Diaspora Network reported.

Lack of human rights and discrimination in the applicability of the rule of law makes it even more challenging for minorities in Pakistan to have stable livelihoods and protection, Shinwari said in the Afghan Diaspora Network report. Lawmakers in Pakistan spend more energy and money in claiming to protect the interests of minorities, including Kashmiris than their own people. However, in reality, they treat both groups with equal disdain.

People have been waiting in queues for wheat, medicines, and other essential items of living for more than a year with no relief in sight. Many people have lost their lives in skirmishes to get bags of wheat. People had to make do with stale bread and water to break their fast during Ramzan.

In 2023, more than 28 Kashmiri have been killed in various parts of Pakistan. However, not a single FIR has been lodged and nor one accused has been hauled up. The disappearance of Kashmiris is no less horrifying than the disappearance of Baloch, Shinwari in the Afghan, Diaspora Network reported.

In May, over 50 Baloch were killed and 31 were made to disappear. Those who are misled by the army to come and live in Pakistan find themselves at tether's end after their use is over. Many are even killed by anonymous assailants. People have seen what Pakistan has done to its own citizens. Hundreds of Baloch people disappear each year.

More than a thousand minority girls are brutally abducted, raped and converted. Many Pashtun young women and men have been snatched from their families and locked up in secret prisoners and several never return.

The weaker tribes of Sindh like Hindus who have no connections with the elite and the influential face humiliation and are major victims of the high-headedness of the society's cream. Many have migrated to bigger cities or if their means allowed them, to Australia to seek asylum due to the rise of extremism in Sindh.

Recently, a three-year-old Hindu boy Samrat Kumar was kidnapped by armed men on a motorcycle in Sindh's Kandhkot. The police have been complacent about the security of Hindus. Political and social organizations have organized sit-in protests at government buildings and urged authorities to take action. However, the upholders of the law are absolutely silent.

Even Punjabis who have had the gumption to take on the army after the arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan faced the brunt of the brutal jackboot, Afghan Diaspora Network reported. Women have been put in prisons, facing the worst of inhuman conditions, as per the news report.

Baloch students studying at universities in Punjab were witch-hunted after the protests that erupted following Imran Khan's arrest on May 9, according to Afghan Diaspora Network report. Balochistan Home Minister Langoo claimed that Baloch students face 'ill-treatment' in Punjab after all the hardships they face to receive that education. Now, they have to face Punjab police brutalities as well.

Last week, UHNRC High Commissioner said that the rule of law in Pakistan is under serious threat. He said that the rise in assaults and arrests is a grave concern. The violence after May 9 indicates the urgency with which a mentality that sanctions abuse and endangers lives has to be corrected. (ANI)