According to US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Pakistan is among the 13 countries where violence against minorities is common and is, at times, even instigated by the government itself. The article 91(3) of the 18th amendment which specifies that only a Muslim can be Prime Minister of Pakistan sets up a bad precedent too. This is a violation of fundamental rights and clearly discriminates against minorities of the country. Minorities are already marginalized in our society and this only adds to then perception of discrimination. The irony is that in the modifications proposed by the Constitutional Reforms Committee comprising so-called secular parties, nothing has been done about it. Our elected representatives are doing nothing against institutionalized religious discrimination. Minorities have always contributed wholeheartedly to the efforts for progress and well being of our country. Sir Zafarullah Khan, an Ahmedi, was the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan who very forcefully pleaded the case for Kashmir in the UN. Similarly, Dr Abdus Salam brought laurels to the country by winning the solitary Nobel Prize that we have had so far by his groundbreaking research in Physics. Similarly, Cecil Chaudhary has been a decorated war veteran of the PAF. India is different from us in this regard as despite very pronounced biases against religious minorities at the individual level, the discrimination has no official patronage. Hence, India has had Muslim Presidents, Sikh Prime Ministers, Christian Foreign Ministers and a Parsi Field Marshal. It is time to do away with such prejudices and treat every one as equal irrespective of his or her religious orientation. -AFTAB ZAIDI, Rawalpindi, April 24.