ICC Note:

Christians in Pakistan daily face one of the most religiously intolerant societies on the planet. Unfortunately, according to research, the society of Pakistan is becoming more intolerant every year. This intolerance has led to intense persecution being endured by Pakistan’s religious minorities, including Christians. This represents Pakistan’s greatest betrayal. At its founding, Pakistan was created to be a nation that would be tolerant of all religions, especially religious minorities. Will Pakistan ever fulfill the vision of being a religiously tolerant nation? Probably not any time soon. 

6/23/2015 Pakistan (Yahoo News) – Christians in Pakistan come from diverse backgrounds and social classes. On the one hand, they have contributed out of all proportion to their numbers to nursing and teaching. On the other, the conversion over a hundred years ago of caste less people has created an underclass which has suffered disproportionately because of discrimination and persecution.

There has been significant middle-class flight and this highlights the parlous plight of those left behind. To be fair, the founders of the country were inspired by nationalist ideals which sought a homeland for the Muslims of South Asia but also included any minorities living within the boundaries of the new nation as equal citizens.

They were definitely not theocrats. However, almost from the beginning there has been incessant pressure from radical Islamists to turn Pakistan into a theocratic state where Christians and other minorities were reduced to being dhimmies (a medieval term for conquered non-Muslims, subject to their own laws) under Shari’a.

This campaign came to fruition under The Presidency of General Zia ul Haq and his program of ‘Islamisation’. Not only did this program enforce Islamic penal law and restrict the freedom of women, it severely restricted the rights of non-Muslims in terms of giving evidence in the courts in certain cases and in access to equal opportunity.

It also consigned them to the ‘limbo’ of separate electorates, where they could elect their own small number of members of Parliament but were otherwise excluded from public life.

Amendments to laws on incitement to religious hatred – originally enacted by the British – brought into existence the notorious blasphemy laws which now prescribe a mandatory death penalty for blaspheming the Prophet of Islam and life imprisonment for desecrating the Quran.

Numerous Christian, Ahmadi and even Muslim people have been accused of these crimes and convicted, though, thank God, none has as yet been executed. Very often the allegation is made to settle personal scores in property disputes or to silence ideological opponents.

Once an allegation is made extremist mobs, nurtured on texts of hate, pressurize police and judiciary to obtain a conviction. Even judges have been murdered for daring to resist such pressure. These laws have not just muzzled freedom of belief and of speech but they have made Christians and other non-Muslims perpetually fearful about being targets of the next accusation.

It has created a ghetto mentality amongst them and further removed them from the ambit of public life. The removal of the moratorium on the death penalty, ostensibly to deal with terrorism, raises the real prospect of someone now being executed for blasphemy. This would be a tragic development indeed.

Alongside legal hurdles, there is petty discrimination in employment, education and in the use of community facilities. The numbers of Christian and other communities are understated to prevent an extremist backlash but this, in turn, restricts their access to services of various kinds.

As if all of the above were not enough, religious minorities have become the target of extremist violence: churches and other places of worship have been attacked, worshippers killed and threats sent to educational and medical institutions.

The nation has to ask itself: is this what Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the founders wanted? If not, how have we reached this point and can we take a different path? We desperately need a constitutional affirmation of the equality of all citizens of Pakistan, with equal access to jobs and services.

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