ICC Note: Christians and other religious minorities are speaking out against a member of the Punjab Assembly after he has been accused of making an anti-Christian remark. According to reports, Arif Abbasi, a member of the Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, called a Christian member of the Punjab Assembly a churha. Churha is an insult used against Christians that denotes their low status and describes them as untouchable.

05/21/2018 Pakistan (UCAN) – Minority members of the Punjab Assembly are condemning a Muslim lawmaker for making anti-Christian remarks.

“Suspend Arif Abbasi!” shouted Sikh and Christian lawmakers outside the assembly, where they held an emergency press conference to discuss a member of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party headed by former cricket star Imran Khan.

“During a heated discussion of the budget, Abbasi called me churha (low caste). This is an insult to all religious minorities in Pakistan. His leader is also prejudiced. We only accept a Pakistan where there is no discrimination of color, cast or faith,” said Tariq Gill, the Christian parliamentary secretary for human rights and minorities.

The remarks were followed by a physical clash between treasury and opposition legislators on May 17.

Churha is a racial and abusive term reserved for Christian sanitation workers. Government advertisements usually announce sweeper jobs only for Christians, Hindus and Shia Muslims in Pakistan. Minority Hindus in Sindh province and Christians in other provinces are associated with cleaning toilets and drains.

Abbasi made a video statement to deny making anti-Christian comments.

“I only said ‘Do not chur chur, respect my leader.’ My comment was in response to insulting remarks but now it is being misquoted,” he said. “I did not use any word against parliamentary etiquette. This is propaganda to distance a community from us.”

“#I am churha” was trending on social media as Christian community leaders posted mixed reactions to the incident.

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