Context
It has been 73 years since the treaty of Liaquat-Nehru pact signed between India and Pakistan.
- Prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan signed it in 1950.
- It was a bilateral treaty between India and Pakistan regarding the rights of minorities and refugees.
Aim
- To provide a framework for the treatment of minorities in both countries following Partition, which was accompanied by massive communal rioting.
- People also know the Nehru-Liaquat Pact as the Delhi Pact, 1950.
- An estimated 1 million people Hindus from East Pakistan and Muslims from West Bengal crossed the borders during 1950 after the partition.
Features
- Minority commissions established to implement these terms, ensuring that confidence was restored for a time.
- The Governments of India and Pakistan solemnly agree that each shall ensure, to the minorities throughout its territory, complete equality of citizenship.
- Members of the minority shall have the equal opportunity with the members of the majority community.
- They have the rights to participate in the public life, to hold political and other office and to serve in civil and armed forces of their country.
- Both governments agreed to declare these rights to be fundamental and undertake to enforce them respectively.
