Pakistan practices religious segregation which puts minorities at the receiving end. With national polls around the corner in the South Asian nation, minorities are looking forward to some respite from the divide-and-rule strategy of the powerful religious and political elite.
Despite Islamization directly enshrined in the constitution, preventing equal rights for all citizens, political parties time and again have come out with pledges and action plans to end religious discrimination as polls near. However, they are seldom put into practice once a new government is cobbled together.
Former prime minister, Imran Khan, and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ruled the nation for three and a half years but kept none of the five poll promises listed in their election manifesto to empower minorities and protect their rights.
Khan, who survived an assassination attempt last year, had pledged to set up a legally empowered National Commission for Minorities (NCM), equal access to justice, laws against hate speech, minority quotas and the promotion of interfaith dialogue.