‘Minority Rights in Pakistan in the Specific Context of Hindu Temple Controversy’

The
controversy of Islamabad Hindu temple is also an opportunity to educate the
nation: IPS roundtable

Sensitive
matters like building a Hindu temple in Islamabad should be dealt with very
diligently on the back of careful need assessment, proper planning and adequate
homework. The judgement now is in the hands of the Council of Islamic Ideology,
whose verdict not only should be based on facts, figures and on-ground
realities, but also needs to be articulated enough to be used to educate the
masses.

The
thoughts were shared in a session titled ‘Minority Rights in Pakistan in the
Specific Context of Hindu Temple Controversy’, which was organized by Institute
of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad on July 15, 2020 to have a look at the
intricacies of the issue. The session was chaired by the Institute’s Executive
President Khalid Rahman.

Sharing
his views over the matter, Rahman said that the matter however would have
attracted much less criticism if it was backed by proper homework.

He
was of the view that there was no denying the fact that the constitutional
rights of non-Muslims in Pakistan should be protected. However, even in Western
democracies there are criteria and procedures for religious communities to
construct new places of worship.

The
discussants raised questions if the population of Hindus in Islamabad
qualifies to have a temple built in its prime location. They
also looked at the matter from economic, constitutional, humanitarian and
international contexts, maintaining that while the development can also be seen
as a step towards promoting a soft image of Pakistan, it also remains a
fact that there was an adequate space for the less than 3000 Hindu
population in Islamabad and Rawalpindi combined to perform their religious
rituals and festivals.

The
session was also told that there were 428 temples across Pakistan –
including 11 in Sindh, 4 in Punjab, 3 in Balochistan and 2 in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa – out of which only 20 are in actual use and others are
dysfunctional because of the absence of Hindu population after the Partition in
their vicinities.

Studying
articles 20, 36 and 37 of the constitution of Pakistan were
suggested to know about the provisions of minority rights in the country’s
constitution, while also urging to have a look and the legal obligations of
international law before deciding over the matter.

It
was also highlighted that the Dalit organizations and their leaders – whose
population accounts for more than 90 per cent of the four million Hindus in
Pakistan and is not even allowed in temples run by upper castes – have also
distanced themselves from the Islamabad mandir controversy and have instead
demanded the government to establish a university in Nagarparkar, Sindh.

Concluding the session, Rahman said that since
the matter now has been forwarded to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for
ruling, it should base its judgement on facts, figures and ground realities. It
should take all the concerned stakeholders on board to hear their viewpoint,
collect the data about the population of the Hindu communities in the
twin-cities, ascertain how many of them actually are concerned about building
the temple in the capital especially when there already exist a few in
Rawalpindi, and then if the genuine need is established as a result of all this
exercise, all these cogent arguments should not only be used to form the
verdict, but also to educate the nation over such issues.