Incidents of violence against minorities, which continue to take place with an awesome regularity, indicate that there is no let up in their persecution. The amendments introduced in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), a culture of intolerance promoted by radical clerics, sections of media and the curriculum taught in schools combine to create an environment hostile to religious minorities. What is more, instead of discouraging anti minority sentiments, most political parties succumb to the prejudices of the extremist groups in their constituencies.
A popular instrument of persecution are the amendments incorporated in the blasphemy laws in the form of 295 B and 295 C by Zia-ul-Haq in 1982. There have been numerous arrests of members of minority communities under these laws over the last two decades. Many accused of blasphemy are brutally murdered before the charge is proved against them, others are killed in jails and police lock ups. It is difficult for anyone accused under these laws to hope for a fair trial in the lower courts where pressure by extremist groups is simply momentous. While Aasias case is yet to be decided, a prominent cleric from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has issued an edict calling on people to kill her if she was to be pardoned by the President, announcing a bounty for anyone carrying out the act.
The Shias are further burdened by 298 A, and Ahmadis by 298 B and 298C, added to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) under Zia. In addition to the legal instruments available to target the minorities, the latter are also subjected to attacks by the communal factions of the TTP. In a way, there is a neat division of work between the radical clerics who unleash hate propaganda against the minorities through their pulpit, CDs, videos and pamphlets freely available in the market and the terrorists who launch physical attacks on minorities. Those subjected to terror attacks could be individuals or families or groups offering prayers at places of worship. There have been cases where clerics have exhorted mobs to attack neighbourhoods inhabited by minorities.
The HRCP annual reports contain a year by year record of attacks on minorities. Among the most gruesome examples is the Gojra killings in August 2009. A member of the Christian community was accused of indulging in blasphemy. Subsequently, a mob incited by calls from a mosque attacked the neighbourhood and looted the Christians homes before setting them on fire. Seven persons were burnt alive, several others killed while three churches and 47 houses were torched. All this happened on the basis of simple hearsay and without any investigation into the charge.
In May this year, over a hundred Ahmadis were killed and scores injured when armed men launched simultaneous gun and grenade attacks on two places of worship in Lahore. At one of the places, the worshippers fought with the gunmen and overpowered them after they had killed several Ahmadis. The police at the other place however waited till over fifty Ahmadis were killed. This indicates reluctance on the part of the police in protecting the most targeted minority group.
Such was the fear of annoying PML(N)s radical supporters that Mian Shahbaz Sharif declined to visit the injured Ahmadis at the hospital. It was noted by many that he had soon after traveled to a distant village to condole with the family of a policeman who was killed by terrorists.
Blasphemy laws continue to be abused to settle personal scores, evade debts owed to non-Muslims and to grab their land by forcing them to flee in the face of violence. In case of a petty dispute with non-Muslims, some would not go to police station because the punishment for that may just be a small fine. On the other hand if someone registers a complaint for blasphemy against his opponent, the latters property can be vandalised or he could be sent to jail for life.
What goes against the minorities is the overhang of the culture of intolerance in Pakitani society. Many job applications require candidates to state their religion. A prominent media house requires applicants to state their sect also. In many middle-class Muslim homes, separate eating utensils are reserved for non-Muslim helpers. Talk show participants casually observe that we are all Muslims here in Pakistan In Pakistan a non-Muslim cannot, by law, become President or Prime Minister
The ideology of hate that forms the basis of school curriculum is constructed around an imaginary international trio comprising Jews, Christians and Hindus who are supposed to be plotting to destroy Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world. The negative image of minorities as traitors and foreign agents is hammered into the childs mind and as he grows, he hears the all too familiar narrative from the pulpit and from many religious parties.
The narrative is in complete opposition to Jinnahs concept of Pakistani nationhood transcending religious and communal identities. What is needed is not only to repeal the amendments introduced by Zia in the PPC but also replace the Objectives Resolution with excerpts from his historic speech in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947.
The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.
