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House Hansard - 90

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 16, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 90 - Jun/16/22
Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)
  • Jun/16/22 10:21:13 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to table some petitions. The first petition I want to table is on a very serious human rights issue. It is on the situation in Pakistan, particularly Pakistan's blasphemy law. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom notes that the blasphemy law has “contributed to egregious human rights abuses and fostered an overall atmosphere of intolerance for religious minorities that often leads to violence and discrimination.” Petitioners particularly highlight the case of Notan Lal, the owner and principal of a private school in Ghotki, Pakistan, who was detained and charged under the blasphemy law after a student made a false accusation. Petitioners note that a very high percentage of accusations of blasphemy target minorities, such as Ahmadiyya Muslims, Hindus and Christians, and that the arrest of Notan Lal was followed by riots and a violent attack on the school, as well as on a local Hindu temple. Petitioners also note the abduction and forced marriage of women and girls from minority communities, in particular Hindu girls from the Sindh region of Pakistan, as being an element of the human rights abuses that we are seeing. Petitioners therefore call upon the government of Pakistan to combat the abduction and forced marriage of women and girls from minority communities, to condemn the imprisonment of Notan Lal and to condemn Pakistan's blasphemy law.
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