Government urged to address abuse of religion through Constitutional and Legal Reforms: NCJP

Lahore, Pakistan: January 15, 2010, (PCTV Newsdesk)

The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) called upon the government to seriously move forward the Constitutional and Legal Reforms including the abuse of religion in the politics. Mounting extremism in the country is also a case in point of the abuse of religion in the politics. Religion is the main pretext in the hands of Religio-political parties, who played a major role in bringing the country to this edge.

Referring to the recent verdict of Bangladesh court that barred religion in politics, the office bearers of NCJP Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha, the Chairperson and Peter Jacob, the Executive Secretary stated that Pakistan should draw a lesson from Bangladesh. The business of state and politics must be conducted independently, not under the banner of religion.

A political system styled by religion dismisses minorities and their rights. Un-democratic forces assigned the constitution to be the custodian of faith through the 1949 Objective Resolution, which was made the preamble to the constitution through 8th Amendment in 1985.

The NCJP also demanded in the statement that the draft of the Constitutional Amendment should be shared with the stake holders to have a wider public opinion. They demanded constitutional and legal reforms including the deletion of Objective Resolution article 2-A from the Constitution of Pakistan and replaced by Quaid – e – Azam’s speech on August 11, 1947. All laws that discriminate on the basis of religion including the blasphemy laws, and anti-Ahmadi law should be repealed and Articles 31, 41(b), 91(3), 203 E (4), 227(1), 230 (1, a-d & 3), 260 (3a &b) should be deleted from the Constitution.

†Lawrence John Saldanha   
Chairperson

Peter Jacob
Executive Secretary

National Commission for Justice and Peace, Pakistan

National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), working since 1985 is a human rights body and a social wing of the Catholic Church in Pakistan. NCJP involves itself in advocacy and conscientization activities on human rights issues in Pakistan.