Sardar Masood Khan calls for interfaith & inter-sectarian dialogue
WASHINGTON, August 26 (SABAH): “The Government of Pakistan is committed to bring arsonists of August 16th incident to justice,” reaffirmed Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan. “The perpetrators of the horrendous act not only attacked a vulnerable community but they also challenged the writ of the state. It was a crime against the nation and the state of Pakistan,” he said. “We will not allow anyone to tarnish the name of Islam or create fissures among our society,” he continued.
Ambassador Masood Khan made these remarks during his meeting with Pak-American Christian leaders from across the United States, led by Aaron Bashir, who represented Christian community, Human Rights Organizations and political leaders. “The entire nation has felt the pain of the victims of Jaranwala incident and is standing behind Christian brothers, sisters and Children helping them to get over the trauma of unfortunate incident.”
The Ambassador said that the visit of the Prime Minister, senior Judges of the Supreme Court, Chief Minister of the province, Cabinet members and others clearly reflected the sentiments of the nation towards affected families. “The government, political and religious leadership and the civil society as a whole, has unequivocally condemned the incident.” “Mere condemnation was not enough. The Federal and the provincial government is compensating the victims and helping them to rebuild their damaged properties,” he said.
The Ambassador highlighted that renowned religious scholar Maulana Taqi Usmani and others have categorically rejected those acts. Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Sirajul Haq has offered help in rebuilding the damaged properties. Ahl-e-Hadis have even offered their mosques to the Christian brethren for the prayer purpose, he continued. Masood Khan further stated that he has also appealed to Pak-American community leaders to help us heal the wounds of Christian community. “The consensus built against such extremism is an opportunity to initiate a broad-based and multi-faith dialogue to identify challenges to our inter-faith and inter-sectarian harmony and to put in place measures that could address these challenges and ensuring that laws were not abused to disrupt peace and societal harmony,” he suggested.
The speakers while expressing solidarity with the Christian brothers and sisters of Jaranwala appreciated the resolve shown by the government in bringing the culprits to justice. Underscoring the need for speedy dispensation of justice, they said that bringing to book the culprits would significantly restore confidence of the affected community. They underscored the need for creating greater public awareness so that the society could serve as bulwark against rising tide of extremism and fanaticism.
Responding to a speaker, Masood Khan said that Christians were equal citizens of the state and the Constitution of Pakistan guaranteed their rights. The followers of other religions have representation not only the federal and provincial legislative assemblies but they have their own quota reserved in government jobs. “We shall never forget the contribution of Christian community in the creation of Pakistan and its socio-economic development,” he said. He thanked the participants for their valuable suggestion and said that the dialogue process should continue.