ICC Note:
Six years after his death, the Pakistani Christian Federal Minister for Minorities still lives in the hearts of millions of Pakistani minorities. At the young age of forty-two, Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated on March 2, 2011 after criticizing the widespread misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Bhatti’s personal driver Gulsher described his employer as a “’courageous’ leader who would not be deterred from voicing the concerns of the Pakistani minorities despite having received death threats.”
03/09/2017 Pakistan (Pakistan Christian Post) – The late Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani Christian federal minister for minorities was gunned down in Pakistan on March 2, 2011 at the age of 42 after he criticized the widespread misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Although his life was cut tragically short six years ago, he lives in the hearts of millions of down-trodden Pakistani minorities.
Mr Bhatti’s first experience of discrimination was at college when a lecturer denied him a front row seat in a classroom instead telling him to go to the back of the room. From then on he vowed to fight for equal rights for the Christians in Pakistan. He began studying the patterns of discrimination against Pakistani Christians. In 1985, he founded the “Christian Liberation Front”. Mr Bhatti invited Christians from across Pakistan to join his newly formed platform to help him advance the struggle for equal rights for the Christians. Disadvantaged Pakistani Christian men, women and youth passionately responded to Mr Bhatti’s call. By the 1990s Mr Bhatti had won the hearts of millions of Pakistani Christians because of his bold stance against the misuse of the blasphemy laws.
…
[Full Story]