 Prohibits the preparation or dissemination of information that ‘advances or is likely to advance interfaith, sectarian or racial hatred.’  Enables couples of 18 years and above from the Sikh community to register their marriage and divorce. Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (2016): Sikh Marriage Act (2024): Pakistan has taken various steps to protect its citizens from racial discrimination, by focusing on issues such as minority rights, hate speech, etc. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in its last Concluding Observations on the combined twenty-first and twenty-third periodic reports of Pakistan in 2016, recognized positive actions undertaken by the country to deal with racial discrimination, which in Pakistan takes the form of ethnic, religious and sectarian discrimination. It commended the introduction of legislative, policy and institutional measures and underlined the use of quotas for the protection of minority rights in the country. The state has instituted a 5% minimum quota system to ensure that minorities are hired within the federal and provincial governments. The Supreme Court has reflected the importance of these quotas in the judgment of Mubarak Ali Babar v. Punjab Public Service Commission,2 wherein it held that any quotas set for minorities or persons with disabilities were protected under the Constitution and were to be retained and carried forward. Reserved seats could not be used to appoint other candidates who fulfil merit unless they fell within these categories. This judgment is seminal in protecting the rights of minorities within Pakistan, ensuring that their rights in employment in the public sector are protected and are not subjected to violation. Moreover, the Washington Post in an assessment of the most racially tolerable countries, concluded that Pakistan is remarkably tolerant. Although the country has several factors that coincide with racial intolerance – sectarian violence, its location in the least-tolerant region of the world, and low economic and human development indices – only 6.5 percent of Pakistanis objected to a neighbour of a different race.3 However, the survey alone cannot be seen as an indication of the lack of significant issues of sectarian and ethnic violence, discrimination, violation of minority rights etc. that continue to pervade Pakistani society, requiring significant reform. 2 Mubarak Ali Babar v. Punjab Public Service Commission W.P. No. 20429 of 2016 Max Fisher, “A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries,” available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-raciallytolerant-countries/ 3 6