Thaindian News

Karachi, Mar 15(ANI): The Sindh Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution urging the Pakistan Government to recommend the name of assassinated Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti for the Nobel Prize.

Salim Khurshid Khokhar, the minority lawmaker from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), tabled the resolution, which was also signed by PPP minority lawmaker Pitamber Sewani.

Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro placed the resolution in the House, and it was unanimously passed, the Daily Times reported.

Khokhar said that Bhatti worked for the equality of rights in the country and the promotion of religious harmony and democracy.

Bhatti promoted the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, he added.

Khokhar said the security of minorities is the guarantee of a bright future for the country, adding that all minorities would fight against terrorism under the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari.

However, the lawmakers seemed to be unaware of the fact that it is not possible to nominate someone for a posthumous Nobel Prize.

From 1974, the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation have stipulated that a Prize cannot be awarded posthumously, unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize.

Bhatti was gunned down in Islamabad on March 2 for his vocal support for reforms of the country’s draconian blasphemy laws.

When Pakistan Muslim League-Functional lawmaker Marvi Rashdi objected over the usage of word ‘Shaheed’ for Bhatti, saying that only Muslims can be called Shaheed, the PPP minister for Katchi, Abadis Rafiq Engineer, replied that one can use the ‘martyr’ word for everyone and its translation in Urdu is ‘Shaheed’. (ANI)