Karachi: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday held out assurances to Pakistani religious minorities, especially Hindus, that it was his duty to safeguard their interests in the country.

Addressing an especially arranged Diwali gathering at a hotel in the city, Sharif said he was the prime minister of all communities in the country.

“It is my Farz, it is my duty that I must help that Hindu who is victimised by a tyrant. And if the tyrant is a Muslim, I will take sterner action against him,” the prime minister said in his address.

He said his religion taught him that one must not side the tyrant against the victim, instead it was mandatory to help the victim against a tyrant.

“We are a single nation, we are the residents of one country regardless of what we are communally,” he said.

The prime minister further said people should be helpful to each other and “we as Muslims” should cherish Hindus — and the two groups should cheer up Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and other communities.

He appreciated the role of minorities in the education and health sectors of the country, and Hindus’ contribution before the partition of the subcontinent.

He referred to the Ganga Ram Hospital and other educational and medical institutions set up by the Hindu philanthropists in this region.

The prime minister also appreciated the role of Christians and Hindus in the judiciary and sport sectors of the country.

He recalled that his family had very strong bonds with Sikh families in India, who took care of his ancestral home after his father Mohammad Sharif migrated to Pakistan from a village in Indian Punjab.

“These are the relations of heart, and the relations of the heart never break up. We call each other every now and then and they sometimes visit us, the relations are everlasting,” he said.

He also appreciated the significance of Diwali in Hindu religion saying “the festival of Diwali is a course from darkness to light”.

The prime minister also announced setting up a hospital in Hyderabad city in memory of Bhagart Kanwar Ram, to fight the rise of hepatitis in the region.

Sharif also announced rehabilitation and reconstruction of Baba Guru Nanak shrine and vowed to lay the inaugural plaque of the two projects himself.

He also asked the local Hindu leaders of his party to invite him for Holi festivities and to throw colour on him that day.