Petition seeking equal rights for minorities filed in Pak SC

The Pakistan Christian National Party (PCNP) has filed a Constitutional petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to amend the 1973 Constitution in order to remove all articles which are anomalous in nature because of their discriminatory character.

Lahore, Aug 27 : The Pakistan Christian National Party (PCNP) has filed a Constitutional petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to amend the 1973 Constitution in order to remove all articles which are 'anomalous' in nature because of their discriminatory character.

The PCNP submitted the petition seeking deletion of Article 41-2 in particular, which provided for only a Muslim citizen to be the President of Pakistan.

It said that this provision was in conflict with the fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 16, 17, 18, 19, 25 and 26 of the 1973 Constitution, the Dawn reported.

PCNP chairperson Joseph M. Francis, who is the petitioner, described himself 'as an aggrieved person' because he intends to contest the presidential election against Pervez Musharraf.

Joseph said that he had submitted a miscellaneous application along with the Constitutional petition requesting the apex court to stay the president's election till such time that his petition was adjudicated.

Joseph said that he had also challenged the veracity of Articles 2 and 31 of the Constitution because it provided for Islam to be the state religion, which deprived non-Muslim citizens of their fundamental rights.

He said that the PCNP had nominated him as the presidential candidate in the light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1992, which all member states, including Pakistan, were obliged to obey.

Similarly, the PCNP's decision of his nomination was consistent with the first speech delivered by country's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, in which he had enunciated Pakistan's policy of secularism.

He also cited the last sermon delivered by the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) on Hajjatul Wida saying that the Islamic principles also enunciated a society where the beliefs of non-Muslim minorities were respected and where there was no discrimination on the basis of religion.

ANI