Religious Minorities in Pakistan

In terms of religion, Pakistan is quite homogenous with a 95% Muslim population. However, the remaining 5% of Pakistanis consist of Hindus, Christians, Parsis, Ahmadis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Shias, Bahais, etc. While Pakistan was created on the premise that Muslims needed a land of their own where they could practice their religion without judgment and persecution, every citizen of Pakistan was to be guaranteed the freedom to practice his or her own faith. Ironically, even the Shias, a Muslim community in the minority in Pakistan, are not afforded this basic right.

The Constitution and Penal Code of Pakistan uses very strict language in the construction of blasphemy laws and offences can be punishable by death. While there has been no judicial execution of a person charged with blasphemy to date, there are however numerous accounts of individuals such as Mirza Mubarak Ahmed and Rimsha Masih who are persecuted on charges of blasphemy. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch have asked the Pakistan government to repeal laws that are discriminatory towards religious minorities, which include a ban on the statute that makes capital punishment mandatory for blasphemy. Furthermore, Gen. Zia ul-Haq deleted the word ‘freely’ from the Objectives Resolution in 1985 in his attempts to Islamicize the nation. The clause originally read, “Wherein adequate provision shall be made for the minorities to ‘freely’ profess and practice their religions and develop their culture”. Steps are being taken by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (whose Federal Minister was given full Cabinet status for the first time this year) to revise Pakistan’s blasphemy laws but in the meantime EU deputies and independent agencies have determined that religious minorities are not provided their civil liberties and equal opportunities in the economic or political sector. The assassinations of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab and Shahbaz Bhatti, Minister of Religious Minorities for their commitment to minority rights and voice against the blasphemy laws underscore the issues facing religious minorities in Pakistan.

Ahmadis

The Ahmadiyya community is between 3 to 4 million people in Pakistan, which makes for about 1.5% of the total population and face high levels of discrimination. Notwithstanding the vision of the founders, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, that every citizen will have the equal right to vote, Pakistan does not even provide Ahmadis the universal right to vote. By the implementation of the eighth amendment to the 1973 Constitution in 1985, the system of separate electoral lists for all religious minorities was introduced in Pakistan. In the course of the 2008 elections, registered voters were required to sign a certificate denying the authenticity of holy founder of the Ahmadiyya community. Since the Ahmadis would not sign this certificate, “they were thus de facto denied their right to vote”. In addition to the de jure barriers facing the Ahmadi community, there is an acute danger of physical persecution by individuals who decide to take the law into their own hands. After the deletion of the word ‘freely’ from the Objectives Resolution in 1985, there was a surge in brutality towards the Ahmadi community.

Christians & Hindus

Pakistani Christians and Hindus face similar challenges even though they have the largest populations in terms of percentage. In the 1956 Constitution, and later in the amended 1973 Constitution under the Zia ul-Haq regime, Pakistan instituted separate electorates against the will of minorities. Although certain minorities still seek a separate electorate, joint electorate was introduced under General (Rtd.) Pervez Musharraf in 2002. This has benefitted minorities by at least granting them dual voting rights. However, this legislative change does not provide Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities the freedom to become an unencumbered part of the Pakistani electoral system. Christians and Hindus are also vulnerable to persecution under the blasphemy laws although there aren’t other specific legal provisions that target Christians or Hindus, as is the case with Ahmadis. Many individuals mete out punishments towards members of these religious communities based on desecration of the Holy Quran or a blasphemous comment allegedly directed at the Prophet. Whether these allegations have any credibility cannot be determined as most of these incidents are ‘settled’ outside of court. One glaring example of this is the Gojra incident in the summer of 2009 where seven Christians, including women and children, were burnt alive based on an allegation of blasphemy that allegedly incited rioting and violence amongst the Muslim community. Another recent example is that of Rimsha Masih mentioned earlier.