KARACHI: Caretaker Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Aneeq Ahmed has said that establishing a harmony based society, based on patience, love and brotherhood holds key significance.
Addressing ‘Interfaith Harmony Conference’ organized by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral here on Saturday, the minister urged the people to end strictness in their behaviours and come forward with the message of brotherhood for a liveable society.
Alluding to the minorities, Aneeq Ahmed said, ‘We will work jointly.’ He said we all agreed to make the society a better place to live in. He further said that no religion taught killings and bloodshed but they taught love and peace.
The law had great importance and it played a significant role in society, he said adding, ‘We have faith in all heavenly holy books and the Holy Quran is the custodian of all these books.’
The minister said that non-Muslim brothers had rendered great services and beautified the metropolis. Vehemently condemning the Jaranwala incident, the Minister said that the incident should not have taken place. He said that the Ulema opened the doors of the mosques to their Christian brothers soon after the incident of Jaranwala to protect them.
He said, on the other hand, that 150 Christians were killed in Manipur of India and the whole of India did not come on the same page to criticise the Manipur incident but the entire Pakistan stood with the Christian community on Jaranwala incident and condemned it.
Aneeq Ahmed said, ‘We (Muslims) and you (minorities) are united.’
On the occasion, he appreciated the idea of conducting workshops and exchange programmes on interfaith harmony. He said that many programmes on interfaith harmony were in the pipeline.
Earlier, Minority leaders including Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Bishop Fredrick John, Sardar Ramesh Singh, Tushna Patel, Mufti Nazir Ahmed, Professor Manoj Chohan and others lauded the efforts of the minister for interfaith harmony and urged him for reformation of the National Commission on Minorities. They also stressed the need for bridging gap to overcome problems faced by minorities.
