Pakistan’s religious
minorities ask government for protection and rights
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| Pakistani Christians at prayer |
Pakistan’s religious minorities have submitted a 10-point
memorandum asking Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government to adopt
policies to safeguard the rights of minorities and women.
By Robin Gomes
Pakistan, where the state religion is Islam, has a
population of around 197 million, of which at least 95 percent is Muslim.
Hindus make up the largest minority group, followed by Christianity and others.
Among those who signed the memorandum at a press conference
in Karachi on Aug. 8 were representatives of the country's Muslim, Hindu, Sikh,
and Baha'i communities. The initiative was organized by the Italian
chapter of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity and foundation
that helps persecuted Christians worldwide, and by Catholic advocate Tabassum
Yousaf, linked to the Community of Sant’Egidio peace group.
Rights and protection
The joint-resolution asks that the minimum age for marriage
of girls be raised from 16 to 18. It calls for the establishment of a
federal ministry for religious minorities, a reservation of a 5% quota for
national and international educational scholarships for minorities, the
protection of minorities' houses of worship from government seizure and to
provide spaces for worship for minority communities in areas such as jails,
hospitals and state institutions.
The minorities also call for legislation to prevent
discrimination against minorities in employment, education and society, the
elimination of material that encourage hatred in books, and government
subsidies for security at minorities' schools.
“We intend to focus on issues related to our freedom, our
fundamental human rights, prejudices and discrimination that exist in
particular towards people of religious minorities and forced conversions of
women of religious minorities," Tabbasum Yousaf told the Vatican’s Fides
news agency.
The religious leaders are also asking for government
subsidies for security at minorities' schools.
A specific request touches on the problem of abductions,
sexual violence and forced conversions of women belonging to religious
minorities, asking for legislation to counteract the phenomenon.
At an event organized in Islamabad on July 29, in view of
the August 11 National Minority Day, Imran Khan said that forced conversion is
un-Islamic. He explained that the Prophet Muhammad himself had
given minorities religious freedom and protected their places of worship,
“because the Quran orders that there be no compulsion in religion”.
“How can we then take it into our own hands to forcefully
convert someone to Islam — either by marrying [non-Muslim] women […] or on
gunpoint or to [by threatening to] kill someone because of their religion?” he
asked.
Blasphemy laws
The joint resolution also asks that minorities “be given
particular protection” against the abuse of the country's controversial
blasphemy laws.
Insulting the Prophet Muhammad in Pakistan is a crime
punishable by death, while offending the Koran, Islam’s holy book, incurs
life imprisonment. Rights organizations say the law is often misused to
settle personal scores.
Former Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, and the Minister for
Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, were both assassinated in 2011
after they defended Catholic woman Asia Bibi and spoke out against her death
sentence and the misuse of the blasphemy laws.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted Bibi on October 31, 2018,
ordering her release.
According to figures by the National Commission for Justice
and Peace (NCJP) of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (PCBC), 16 people
were arrested or booked for blasphemy in 2018: nine Christians, four Ahmadis
(deemed heretics by radical Islam), two Muslims and one Hindu.
Second-class citizens
Discrimination against Christians also occurs in the
workplace. Sanitation work is reserved for Christians.
“We are 100% sons and daughters of this land; we should not
be treated as second-class citizens,” said Fr. Saleh Diego, vicar general of
the Archdiocese of Karachi, who was present at the August 8 press conference.
At an August 11 National Minorities Day event in Lahore,
several Christian leaders highlighted the rise of intolerance in the country
and the abuse of the blasphemy laws.
According to Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore,
"Minority is not a good word.” “It should be called the Day of Unity or
Msaawat (equality),” he told AsiaNews. He lamented, “ We [Christians]
played an equal role in the creation, defence, welfare and development of
Pakistan but our contributions are not part of the syllabus.”
The Government of Pakistan declared 11 August as National
Minority Day in 2009, much due to the efforts of Bhatti who also set up
the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance in 2002.
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