ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has condemned the demolition of an ancient mosque in the Indian state of Haryana, and called on the United Nations (UN), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other human rights organizations, to hold India “accountable.”
Indian authorities razed Bilal Masjid in Haryana’s Faridabad area earlier this week. Pictures and videos purportedly showing the demolition operation were widely circulated on social media, with heavy machinery seen tearing down the building.
Attacks on members of religious and ethnic minorities and their places of worship have become frequent in India, whose government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is accused of discriminating against the minority community in the Hindu-majority country. Modi denies the charge.
“Pakistan strongly condemns unjust demolition of Bilal Mosque in Haryana by Indian authorities, in consort with pliant judiciary under Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh regime,” Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, a spokesperson of the Pakistani Foreign Office, said in a statement, referring to the ruling party of India.
“The Hindutva driven BJP-RSS combine’s perpetual targeting of Muslims and their places of worship is indelible blot on the so-called ‘largest democracy’.”
The statement also recalled the Indian Supreme Court’s November 2019 judgment that allowed the construction of Ram Mandir at the site of the historic the 16th-century Babri Mosque, demolished in 1992 by Hindu mobs, triggering riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed across India.
Court battles over the ownership of the site followed, ending in 1992 when the court awarded the bitterly contested religious site to Hindus.
“The Indian judiciary was also culpable in acquitting the criminals who had organized the destruction of the Babri Masjid in public glare,” the Pakistani statement said.
Muslims and their places of worship were attacked “with state complicity” during anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat and New Delhi in February 2020, it said.
The Pakistani foreign office also urged the international community, particularly the UN, OIC and other rights organizations, to “hold India accountable for systematic human rights violations of minorities, especially Muslims.”
Pakistan condemns demolition of ancient mosque, calls on UN, OIC to hold India ‘accountable’
https://arab.news/c53cs
Pakistan condemns demolition of ancient mosque, calls on UN, OIC to hold India ‘accountable’
- Indian authorities demolished ancient Bilal Masjid in Haryana’s Faridabad area earlier this week
- Foreign office says India’s targeting of Muslims "indelible blot on the so-called ‘largest democracy’"
Sindh assembly passes resolution rejecting move to separate Karachi
- Chief Minister Shah cites constitutional safeguards against altering provincial boundaries
- Calls to separate Karachi intensified amid governance concerns after a mall fire last month
ISLAMABAD: The provincial assembly of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Saturday passed a resolution rejecting any move to separate Karachi, declaring its territorial integrity “non-negotiable” amid political calls to carve the city out as a separate administrative unit.
The resolution comes after fresh demands by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other voices to grant Karachi provincial or federal status following governance challenges highlighted by the deadly Gul Plaza fire earlier this year that killed 80 people.
Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and most densely populated city, is the country’s main commercial hub and contributes a significant share to the national economy.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah tabled the resolution in the assembly, condemning what he described as “divisive statements” about breaking up Sindh or detaching Karachi.
“The province that played a foundational role in the creation of Pakistan cannot allow the fragmentation of its own historic homeland,” Shah told lawmakers, adding that any attempt to divide Sindh or separate Karachi was contrary to the constitution and democratic norms.
Citing Article 239 of Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution, which requires the consent of not less than two-thirds of a provincial assembly to alter provincial boundaries, Shah said any such move could not proceed without the assembly’s approval.
“If any such move is attempted, it is this Assembly — by a two-thirds majority — that will decide,” he said.
The resolution reaffirmed that Karachi would “forever remain” an integral part of Sindh and directed the provincial government to forward the motion to the president, prime minister and parliamentary leadership for record.
Shah said the resolution was not aimed at anyone but referred to the shifting stance of MQM in the debate while warning that opposing the resolution would amount to supporting the division of Sindh.
The party has been a major political force in Karachi with a significant vote bank in the city and has frequently criticized Shah’s provincial administration over its governance of Pakistan’s largest metropolis.
Taha Ahmed Khan, a senior MQM leader, acknowledged that his party had “presented its demand openly on television channels with clear and logical arguments” to separate Karachi from Sindh.
“It is a purely constitutional debate,” he told Arab News by phone. “We are aware that the Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules the province, holds a two-thirds majority and that a new province cannot be created at this stage. But that does not mean new provinces can never be formed.”
Calls to alter Karachi’s status have periodically surfaced amid longstanding complaints over governance, infrastructure and administrative control in the megacity, though no formal proposal to redraw provincial boundaries has been introduced at the federal level.
