A/HRC/37/13 10. Pakistan had made extraordinary efforts and sacrifices to eradicate the scourge of terrorism. To date, Pakistan had lost nearly 10,000 soldiers and police personnel, and around 50,000 civilians. The total economic cost for Pakistan over the past decade had been around $75 billion. 11. Pakistan had ensured the steady mainstreaming of human rights in the overall policy priorities and national discourse. Some of the progress achieved in that respect was in line with recommendations from the previous review. Those included the establishment of the Ministry of Human Rights, provincial human rights departments, human rights committees at district level and the launch of the national Action Plan for Human Rights. 12. Pakistan had taken important legislative measures to meet its international human rights obligations, including ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Pakistan continued to regularly report to the treaty bodies on the implementation of the relevant conventions. 13. The Minister stressed that minorities had the Constitutional right to freely profess their religion and visit their places of worship. A case in point was the flourishing Christian missionary school system, to which even the most devout Muslims sent their children to receive education. 14. An undeniable fact of history was that the global fault lines of the cold war and ideological competition among foreign powers had travelled to Pakistan, creating forces of extremism and sectarianism that targeted people of all faiths and beliefs. 15. The Government was taking serious action against hate speech, which had led to allegations of blasphemy and religious discrimination. The Minister gave examples of such actions in Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. 16. Pakistan agreed that all human rights were equal, indivisible, interdependent and mutually reinforcing. However, for a developing country like Pakistan, economic and social rights were of paramount importance. Pakistan had strengthened social protection networks, which provided subsistence allowances to poor widows, orphans, persons with disabilities and the unemployed. The microcredit financing scheme, Benazir Income Support Programme, continued to provide immediate relief to women of low-income families. 17. The Minister expressed his gratitude for the advance questions and indicated that the delegation of Pakistan would try to respond to them during the interactive dialogue. 18. The Secretary for Human Rights stated that, despite severe constraints, Pakistan had enhanced its promotion and protection of human rights through institutional, legal and policy measures. 19. Of particular note was the establishment of the Ministry of Human Rights and its provincial offices; treaty implementation cells and independent and well-funded human rights institutions at the federal and provincial levels, such as the National Commission for Human Rights and the National Commission on the Status of Women; and the human rights cell in the Supreme Court. Grass-roots, district-level human rights committees acted as human rights monitoring mechanisms and provided free legal aid and financial assistance. 20. Legislative work was also under way. There were laws prescribing penalties for antiwomen practices, such as rape and acid crime, on the one hand, and laws providing social support, such as the Benazir Income Support Programme, on the other. The Hindu Marriage Act and the Christian Marriage Act were recognition of the communities’ right to regulate their own marriages. 21. Vision 2025 focused on ending discrimination against women and providing an enabling environment for their socioeconomic potential. B. Interactive dialogue and responses by the State under review 22. During the interactive dialogue, 111 delegations made statements. Recommendations made during the dialogue are to be found in section II of the present report. 3