ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday called for granting financial and administrative autonomy to the National Commission for Minorities and said an interfaith harmony policy should be launched to activate mosques as community centers to promote religious tolerance. 
Non-Muslims constitute about three percent of Pakistan’s estimated population of 240 million people. Pakistan’s minority communities complain of facing discrimination in nearly all walks of life and regularly come under attack by militant groups. They have also sometimes been accused of blasphemy, which is punishable by death in the South Asian nation.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs and Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, Rana Sanaullah, chaired a meeting in Islamabad to review the National Commission for Minorities Bill 2024. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar proposed at the meeting to make the National Commission for Minorities “independent and autonomous from ministerial pressure.”
“The subcommittee also proposed granting financial and administrative autonomy to the commission. The commission will consist of 13 members, 9 of whom will be from minority communities,” the ministry of religious affairs said in a statement. 
“The committee directed the Ministry of Law and Justice to finalize the National Commission for Minorities Bill 2024 within three days.”
A new interfaith harmony policy for promoting religious tolerance was also reviewed. 
“Sanaullah emphasized the significant importance of mosques in Islam and suggested that the interfaith harmony policy should include a proposal to activate mosques as community centers,” the statement said. 
“The committee directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony to present the interfaith harmony policy and the policy for promoting religious tolerance to the federal cabinet meeting for final approval, incorporating the subcommittee’s amendments related to both policies.”

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan had a “history of lawlessness,” as he briefed the diplomatic corps on recent protests by the party and government actions to disperse demonstrators. 
Thousands of PTI supporters had gathered in Islamabad’s historic D-Chowk square last month to demand Khan’s release from prison. The protest convoy broke through several lines of security and reached the edge of the capital’s highly fortified red zone, home to key government and diplomatic buildings. The protest was called off after security forces carried out a midnight raid on the site, with the government saying it used rubber bullets and tear gas but no live ammunition. 
The PTI says at least 20 of its supporters have been killed, while the government says four troops died. The PTI has also said “hundreds” of its supporters had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds and the government was attempting to cover up the extent of the deaths and injuries, which state authorities deny. Meanwhile, social media platforms have been awash for days with pictures and video footage of the injured and dead that the government has called “fake propaganda,” insisting there were no civilian casualties.
Briefing diplomats at the Foreign Office in Islamabad on Wednesday, Dar reiterated that law enforcement agencies were not provided live ammunition but used water cannons, tear gas and batons.
“Our priority has always been to take care of the red zone … And we are very conscious that our valuable ambassadors, high commissioners, their colleagues, they are all housed in that area so this has always been a priority during our governance that we make sure that this area, which we call the red zone, is free from any protests or any violence,” the deputy PM said. 
For this purpose, Dar explained, parliament passed a law this year, the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024, to streamline the process for obtaining permission to hold public gatherings in Islamabad and designating specific areas and timings for such activities. 
Prior to the start of the PTI’s protest on Nov. 24, a Pakistani court had also ruled that the party would not be allowed to demonstrate in the red zone, but should engage with the government and be designated an alternative location.
“The government obviously tried its best, the ministry of interior engaged them [PTI], there were long sessions of three days but nothing came out of it,” Dar said. “They were insistent that law or no law, that we will come in the red zone, so unfortunately [there is] a history of lawlessness in this party.”
The deputy foreign minister, who also serves as the country’s foreign minister, also said the party had a history of announcing protests during visits by foreign dignitaries. 
The November protest coincided with a visit to Pakistan of the president of Belarus while protests in October, which the PTI later called off, had been planned on the days of a key Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Islamabad. 
“This shows mala fide intent,” Dar added. 
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed legal action against “rioters” involved in the PTI’s anti-government protests as the party decried a state-backed crackdown against its supporters.
In the aftermath of the protests, Sharif has formed two task forces: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government describes as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.