Jannat Hussain Nekokara, assistant commissioner Attock, on Tuesday apologized for her comments in support of equal human rights for Pakistan’s minorities. Nekokara made the comments while speaking at an International Human Rights Day event in Attock.
Speaking at the event AC Nekokara said:
“We should give due rights to Non-Muslims Pakistanis, we should give them their due regard, we have unfortunately gotten stuck in these religious divisions, someone identifies as Shia, someone as Sunni, someone as an Ahmadi, someone as a Wahabi, we should dissolve these differences and instead identify ourselves only as Muslims and Pakistanis”
Those present at the event objected to the commissioner’s grouping of Ahmadis with other Muslims and soon after over a dozen protestors arrived at the district administration building. Assistant Commissioner Attock Jannat Hussain Nekokara, was also summoned to the officer to explain herself where she described that she did not in anyway mean that Ahmadis were Muslim and she accepted the Pakistani constitution which declared them non-Muslim.
She said:
“We were talking about human rights, we were talking about non-Muslim Pakistanis…….. then I talked about minority rights, i spoke about rights of non-Muslim Pakistanis, may be i should have not even mentioned the word Ahmadi in that, then I spoke about how we should stay united and not discriminate against anyone so that we can protect against external enemies”
To this the protesting students objected by saying:
“If the the 1973 constitution says that they are non-Muslims and Infidels why are you speaking about unity”
Responding to the objections by protestors Nekokara responded:
“They [Ahmadis] are non-Muslim according to the constitution and non-Muslim in my view as well”
Former candidate Punjab Assembly, Advocate Malik Omar Arshad condemned AC Nekokara’s statement and said he is consulting legal experts and will file a writ petition with the Session Court, Attock and later in the Lahore High Court.