{"id":4019,"date":"2026-11-08T13:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T08:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4019"},"modified":"2026-11-08T13:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T08:04:07","slug":"president-pm-reaffirm-commitment-to-minority-rights-on-diwali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4019","title":{"rendered":"President, PM reaffirm commitment to minority rights on Diwali"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday extended warm greetings to the Hindu community in Pakistan and around the world on the occasion of Diwali, reaffirming their commitment to protecting minority rights and promoting religious harmony.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In their separate messages, both leaders described Diwali as a symbol of the triumph of light over darkness, hope over despair and good over evil, emphasising its message of tolerance, compassion and peaceful coexistence.<\/p>\n<p>President Zardari said the Hindu community was an integral part of the country, acknowledging its contributions to education, healthcare, business, public service, social welfare, arts and culture.<\/p>\n<p>Reaffirming the principle of equal citizenship envisioned by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he said every citizen must be able to practise their faith freely, live with dignity and enjoy equal protection under the law. He stressed that safeguarding minority rights was a shared national responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also praised the Hindu community\u2019s contributions to Pakistan\u2019s social, cultural and economic development, saying the Constitution guaranteed the religious and civil rights of all minorities.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government remained committed to protecting the rights, dignity and religious freedoms of every citizen, irrespective of religion, faith, colour or ethnicity.<\/p>\n<p>Both leaders called for strengthening interfaith harmony, mutual respect and national unity, expressing hope that Diwali would bring happiness, prosperity and renewed hope to the Hindu community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday extended warm greetings to the Hindu community in Pakistan and around the world on the occasion of Diwali, reaffirming their commitment to protecting minority rights and promoting religious harmony. In their separate messages, both leaders described Diwali as a symbol of the triumph of light over darkness, hope over despair and good over evil, emphasising its message of tolerance, compassion and peaceful coexistence. President Zardari said the Hindu community was an integral part of the country, acknowledging its contributions&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}