Pak rights minister highlights plight of Ahmadis as Nobel laureate's grave desecrated
Sep 03, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], September 3 : Pakistan human rights minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada on Friday said that the Ahmadi minority community in the country is being subjected to grave human rights violations and because of the deep fear instilled in them no one even dares to mention the name of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Abdus Salam.
He made the remarks while briefing the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Human Rights. Pirzada said it was unfortunate how the nation has overlooked its national heroes, reported The Friday Times.
The Ahmadis are not recognised as Muslims after the anti-Ahmadiyya ordinance was made in the Constitution of Pakistan in 1984, which restricted the freedom of religion for Ahmadis. Abdus Salam Centre for Physics in Pakistan was named in honour of Dr Abdus Salam, who won Pakistan's first Nobel Prize in sciences 1979, for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory.
However, the situation in Pakistan continues to exhibit gory 'Islamophobia' against Ahmadis. Pakistan is indubitably more phobic of the Ahmadiyya sect, and their interpretation of Islam, reported The Diplomat.
The grave of Abdus Salam (1926-1996) is in Rabwah in the Punjab province of Pakistan. However, the grave was desecrated as from the English inscription on the grave, the world "Muslim" has been erased from the phrase "the first Muslim Nobel laureate."
The tombstone of Pakistan's - and the Muslim world's - first Nobel Prize winner Dr Abdus Salam was desecrated, just like the other graves. It now reads: "Professor Muhammad Abdus Salam, in 1979 became the first ****** Nobel laureate for his work in Physics."
Speaking about the missing persons in Pakistan, the rights activist said that his ministry had strived to overcome rights challenges confronting the nation however it is not in a position to hold anybody accountable.
"We look towards other ministries and police do so. Now, the ministry had been regulating conduct of law enforcement agencies," he noted.
