A ten-point manifesto asks the new government and Parliament to succeed where politicians have always failed: grant freedom of religion to non-Muslim citizens.
by Marco Respinti
On February 8, long-awaited general elections will be held in Pakistan. Religious minorities represented in the NGO Minority Concern Pakistan (MCP), including Christians and Hindus, published a ten-point manifesto. They ask all political parties to acknowledge that religious minorities’ rights are threatened in Pakistan and commit themselves to take appropriate action.
Item #1 formulates the general principle that “Minority rights should get significant space in the political process and the governance system of Pakistan.” The second point recalls that the founder of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, conceived the country as a pluralistic rather than an Islamic state: “Political parties [should] take concrete measures to make Pakistan a pluralistic state by putting Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s speech in the parliament.”
Item #3 ask for the “Implementation of the judgment (SMC No. 1/2014), given by the former Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice (Retd.) Tasaduq Hussain Jilani on 19 June 2014 on minority rights.” The 2014 judgment came after the bombing of a church in Peshawar and threats being made towards religious minorities. “Suo moto” the Supreme Court called for measures to protect non-Muslims. They never came.
There is a system in Pakistan reserving ten seats out of 342 in the National Assembly to minorities. Item #4 asks that “Minorities should have an effective presence in decision-making bodies, especially for the nomination of non-Muslim’s reserved seats, which should be representative, merit-based, and transparent.” Item #5 adds that “Political Parties must give tickets to non-Muslim candidates where they can win in an open election on general seats from their respective parties.” In fact, non- Muslim candidates can compete for general seats but when they do there is always the possibility of a fatwa against them where Islamic clerics would rule that Muslims cannot vote for them.
Item #6 requests that “The government, the Election Commission of Pakistan, and political parties, especially the candidates, must make sure that hate speech against non-Muslims should not be used or condoned. Therefore, minorities should actively take part in the elections of the country.” “Political parties should table necessary bills in the federal and provincial assemblies for protection and development of Pakistan’s non-Muslim citizens,” adds item #7. Pakistan is still far away from these objectives. As “Bitter Winter” regularly documents, hate speech against religious minorities is both rampant and condoned by the authorities.
Item #8 suggests some technical remedies. “The ‘Ministry of Minorities’ should be restored, and through a consultative process, ‘National Commission for Minorities’ should be formed.”
The very important item #9 requests that “Political parties should give special attention to the major minority issues, such as discriminatory laws, which are contrary to the international human rights treaties, protection of minorities, the issue of their development, abduction and forced marriages of non-Muslim girls, and the just implementation of jobs’ quota system.” Perhaps international pressure will persuade the new government to at least take action against abduction and forced conversion and marriage of Hindu and Christian girls, which is a plague and a scandal that continues unchallenged.
As for item #10, “Land should be given to Churches and Temples, just like land is given to Muslims,” it would perhaps be enough not to burn or destroy the Hindu temples, Christian churches, and other places of worship of religious minorities that already exists.
