PAKISTAN (ACN News): Pakistan’s Minister-in-charge for National Harmony Dr Paul Bhatti recommends more dialogue between European governments and institutions on the one side and private, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Pakistan on the other side.
Dr Bhatti, who is the brother of Pakistan’s assassinated Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, said that in their negotiations and meetings, the EU and individual states should not limit themselves to contacts with the Government in Islamabad.
In a meeting with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), he backed up his recommendation by pointing to the skills and the greater freedom of private organisations.
He also clearly affirmed this recommendation during his last visit to Brussels in meetings with the commission and members of the European Parliament.
He said the private NGOs knew how to provide concrete aid on the ground.
Dr Bhatti said aid was particularly necessary in the field of education.
“Illiteracy and intolerance are the principal causes of the deterioration in social relations and the tensions between the individual ethnic and religious groups among the population,” he said.
Dr Bhatti is a Catholic like his murdered brother, whose Ministry for Minority Affairs was renamed after the assassination.
On the invitation of ACN, together with Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, he met with high-ranking politicians in Brussels, among them the President of the European Union, Hermann van Rompuy.
Dr Bhatti said his brother had “fought a good fight against every form of discrimination” and “always based himself on the teachings of the New Testament”.
He said the minorities “need the protection of the international community”.
About 2.2 million Christians live in Pakistan, including 1.2 million Catholics.
Christians account for about two per cent of the population.
In recent years the blasphemy laws have led to an increase in arbitrary actions against Christians and Hindus, and against Muslims.
Many Christians in Pakistan are dependent on external aid. Aid to the Church in Need supports numerous projects in that country.
