Not the ideal one
Pakistan has turned into a country altogether different from the one visualised by the Quaid. Among other things, the founding father had promised that every citizen, irrespective of his faith or creed, would have the freedom to practice his religion, to live in peace and enjoy full rights as a citizen. What one sees happening is a complete negation of Jinnah’s ideals. Three reports appearing on one day pertaining to the persecution of minorities expose the claims often made by the right wing media about freedom and security Pakistan extends to its minorities. Early Monday morning, an Ahmadi graveyard in Lahore’s upscale Model Town was raided by armed men wearing masks. They removed the tombstones and desecrated over 100 graves. The same day, gunmen shot and severely wounded a 70-year-old Swedish Christian woman who was the director of the social wing of a Christian NGO. Ms Almby had been running a midwifery course and technical courses dealing with the rights of the poor for about four decades. Both the incidents occurred in a neighbourhood where the chief minister’s family also resides. A news appearing in an English daily on Tuesday tells of a Hindu temple having been demolished by a private builder, assisted by a sensitive organisation, in Karachi’s Soldier Bazar.
Early this year, there were reports of forced conversions of Hindu girls from Sindh which were followed by migration of scores of members of the community to India. Then there was the case of a Christian girl suffering from Down’s Syndrome who was arrested on a charge of blasphemy which subsequently could not be established in the Islamabad High Court. Shia religious gatherings have been attacked, members of the community travelling to Gilgit have been taken out of buses and killed on KKH or Kaghan. In Quetta, the attacks on the Hazara community continue to be conducted with an eerie regularity. This has led to the tarnishing of the image of Pakistan as a country where the persecution of minorities is all too common.
The PPP and its allies failed to fulfil their duty to defend the minorities during their nearly five-year long tenure. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has now urged the political parties, religious bodies and civil society organisations “to rise up to defend Jinnah’s Pakistan”. Parties which are in power do not deliver sermons. They are supposed to act. Had the appeal been launched when the government took over, it might have made some sense. As it comes at the fag end of his party’s tenure and when an informal election campaign is already afoot, it is likely to be interpreted by some as a cynical attempt to seek the minorities’ votes.