Easter, Diwali holidays for Pakistani Christians, Hindus ‎

The Pakistani National Assembly has passed a resolution granting holidays to Christians and Hindus on their respective holy days. The resolution granting Easter a holiday for Christians, and Diwali a holiday for Hindus, was the effort of Vankwani Ramesh Kumar, an Assembly member of the Hindu faith.  While some minority rights activists appreciate the initiative, others point out that it is not enough to recognize some holy days of religious traditions. Rather, equal rights and the concrete protection of minority groups should be guaranteed.

Kashif Aslam, activist and coordinator of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, told AsiaNews the historic decision was the recognition of minorities as citizens of Pakistan. However, he said there were other steps that should be taken, sucha as the proposal submitted by late Shahbaz Bhatti to replace the word Essai with Masihi to denote Christians in government documents or school texts.  But the issue has been sidelined.

Husnain Jamal, a Muslim, noted that while the two religious minorities will have their holidays, the rest of the Muslim population will go to work.  He suggested that Islamabad declare these days as national holidays for everyone, so Muslims can rejoice and celebrate with other religious minorities.

Fr. Aftab James Paul of Faisalabad Diocese said the government should rather focus on the protection of rights.  He said authorities should ensure the right to education, the freedom to practice one's religion and quotas for minorities in government employment. Finally, they should remove prejudices against minorities from school books. (Source: AsiaNews)