Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen M Mazari expressed that concerns and issues related to marginalized and multi-ethic identity have been recognized as an important issue of contemporary era. Pakistan is a multi-ethnic society and to protection of the rights of all citizens is responsibility of the state. For the prosperity of the country we cannot afford to ignore marginalize groups of society; rather we need to engross them in our social circle. For this cause, it is a dire need of the time to change the mid set of people and to mainstream all the marginalized groups and youth to make them a productive unit of society otherwise we will face the multiple issues including extremism and radicalism. She said the government is taking measures to ensure provision of rights to people indiscriminately. Dr Mazari said Pakistan is a multi-ethnic society and protection of the rights of all citizens is responsibility of the state. She said the mindset will have to be changed to check inappropriate treatment with women and children. She said the youth must be engaged to protect them from going toward extremism. She stated that we have to move from social welfare approach to rights based approach. She shared these views while addressing the concluding session of “Pakistan Summit” here in Islamabad on Friday. On this occasion, senator, Dr. Musadaq Malik, senator, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, MNA, Andleeb Abasi, Musharraf Zaidi, were also present along with people belonging to different walk of life. Addressing the Conference, Dr. Mazari said that Pakistan is a multi-ethnic society and to protection of the rights of all citizens is responsibility of the state. Bright future of Pakistan can only be ensured by engaging all social and ethnic groups by eliminating the identity’s gap. If we ignore the marginalized ethnic groups and youth, there would always be a probability of prevailing extremism among them. With the help of education and awareness, we can change the mindset of society at a larger level. In addition, issues related to ethnic identity can be solved by engaging all social groups for the common goal of Pakistan’s prosperity. She said that the since 9/11, the concept of warfare has been changed in all over the world and technological developments have given a new shape to the international politics and war which demand to deal this new landscape with the help of economic agenda. She further expressed that India has never accepted the existence of minorities in the country and minorities particularly Muslims have always been marginalized. She said that even in Europe, Muslims are broadly facing religious and human rights violation. Ethnic identity issues cannot always be linked with economic development rather it has a strong connection with mindset which needs to be changed with the help of education and awareness. She said that we are committed to award the equal rights to every segment of society including all marginalized groups, children, women, disable and transgender. Incumbent government is determined to safeguard their rights as per the international commitments and Constitution of Pakistan guarantees the rights of every citizen. In Pakistan, we have various laws but their proper implement has always been a major challenge. We are well aware that to change the collective mind set of the society is a big challenge along with implementation of existing laws which is a core area for our ministry and we are very vigilant to work on it and have run different awareness campaigns to bridge this gap. To ensure the rights to children, our ministry is not only collecting date related to child labour but also compiling a data base which would comprise all important details of human rights issues. At the end, souvenirs were distributed among guests. *******
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