A segregated state
Pakistan: The land of religious apartheid and jackboot justice.
Excerpts from a report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights
Legalisation of religious apartheid
The Pakistan government, in its policies, programmes
and laws, only recognises the religious minorities but not the ethnic,
linguistic or racial minorities living in the country.
The Constitution of Pakistan segregates its citizens on
the basis of religion and provides preferential treatment to Muslims.
While Article 2 of the Constitution declares Islam “the state religion of
Pakistan” and the holy Koran and Sunnah to be “the supreme law and source
of guidance for legislation to be administered through laws enacted by the
Parliament and provincial assemblies and for policymaking by the
government”, under Article 41(2) only a Muslim can become president.
Further, Article 260 of the Constitution differentiates between “Muslim”
and “Non-Muslim” thereby facilitating and enco uraging
discrimination on the basis of religion.
The Constitution is so glued to providing preferential
treatment to the majority Muslims that even a Hindu judge has to take oath
of office in the name of “Allah”. On March 24, 2007 Justice Rana
Bhagwandas, a Hindu, while being sworn in as acting chief justice of
Pakistan, being the seniormost judge after the suspension of Chief Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had to take oath with a Koranic prayer – “May
Allah almighty help and guide me (A’meen)”.
Provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), in
particular, Section 295A, Section 295B, Section 295C, Section 298A and
Section 298B, provide harsh punishment for alleged blasphemy. These
blasphemy laws undermine some of the major provisions of the Constitution
of Pakistan, such as the fundamental right to “profess, practise and
propagate his religion” (Article 20), equality before the law and equal
protection of law to all citizens (Article 25) and safeguarding the
“legitimate rights and interests of minorities” (Article 36). The Apostasy
Bill 2006 introduced by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in the national
assembly in May 2007 seeks, among other things, to provide the death
sentence to any Muslim converting to other religions and imposes life
imprisonment on women apostates.
Teaching hatred in schools
Hindus and Hinduism have been allegedly maligned and
hatred against them is propagated in textbooks approved by the national
curriculum wing of the federal ministry of education. Among other things,
Hindus have been stated as the “enemy of Islam” in the textbooks of Class
V.
Persecution under blasphemy laws
Since Ahmadis have been declared heretic, practising their
faith in public can be described as blasphemous and therefore the dagger
of blasphemy laws perennially hangs over their heads. Blasphemy laws have
been widely abused and misused to target minorities and sometimes to
settle personal vendettas even among Muslims. Between January 1 and June
1, 2007 at least 25 persons, of whom 16 were Christians, including nine
women, were victimised under the blasphemy laws. In 2006, 90 cases of
blasphemy were reported. Of these, only 48 were registered with the
police, in which 27 accused were Muslims, 10 Christians and 11 Ahmadis.
Considering that Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis constitute only slightly
more than four per cent of the total population of Pakistan, they have
been disproportionate victims of the blasphemy laws. On May 30, 2007
Younis Masih, a Christian, was sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy
by the sessions court in Lahore. He was charged on September 10, 2005
under Section 295C of the PPC.
Even the anti-terror laws are invoked against those
accused of blasphemy and often the judiciary sanctifies the charges. On
June 8, 2007 Saeed Ahmad, an Ahmadi, was arrested under Section 298C of
the PPC at Nakdar police station in Sargodha district (first information
report, FIR No. 73/2007). Later, the police added Clause 9 of the
Anti-Terrorism Act to the charge sheet. Earlier, on November 25, 2006 an
anti-terrorism court sentenced two Christians – James Masih (65) and Buta
Masih (70) – to 10 years’ imprisonment in addition to a fine of Rs 25,000
for committing “blasphemy” against the Koran in October 2006 in Faisalabad
district.
Even children were not spared. On January 26, 2007 police
reportedly registered cases against five Ahmadi children, identified as
11-year-old Nusrat Jahan, daughter of Hakim Muhammad Sadiq of Ahmadabad
Janoobi; 8-year-old Umair Ahmad, son of Ghulam Ahmad of Ahmadabad Janoobi;
Ashfaq Ahmad, son of Muhammad Mumtaz of Khai Kalan; Rafi Ahmad, son of
Muhammad Yousaf of Omerabad Majoka; and Abdul Sattar, son of Ahmad Hasan
of Thathi Omerabad, under Section 17 of the Maintenance of Public Order
Ordinance at Chora Kalan police station in Khushab district for
subscribing to the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya’s monthly children’s magazine,
Tasheezul Azhan.
Those who faced blasphemy charges continued to live in
fear even after acquittal by the courts. A Christian identified as Shahid
Masih of Faisalabad had to go into hiding although he was released on bail
on January 17, 2007 in a blasphemy case. Judge Muhammad Tanveer Akbar
granted Shahid Masih bail on the ground that evidence against him was only
“circumstantial”. Yet he faced threats from the fundamentalists and had to
go into hiding.
Denial of government jobs
Religious minorities have been denied proportional
representation in government jobs. According to the 13th census of civil
servants, 2006, an overwhelming majority (97.51 per cent) of federal civil
servants are Muslims while only 250 civil servants (0.11 per cent) are
Ahmadis, 499 civil servants (0.21 per cent) are Hindus, 23 civil servants
are Buddhists, 4,731 (2.01 per cent) civil servants are Christians, 22
civil servants are of “other” religions and 0.14 per cent whose religions
have not been disclosed. Minorities are often discriminated against in
government jobs on the basis of religious belief. On May 15, 2007 Amjad
Mahmud was fired from service in the Atomic Energy Commission while 40 of
his colleagues, who were Muslims, were regularised in August 2006. He was
allegedly fired for being an Ahmadi follower. Earlier, in April 2007
Mushtaq Masih, a Christian, who was employed as a sweeper by the municipal
administration, was suspended from his job because of his arrest on
suspicion of blasphemy.
Denial of freedom of movement
Since July 2003, Ahmadis travelling to Mecca for Haj must
officially denounce in writing the founder of the Ahmadi faith, Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad, as a “cunning person and an impostor”. In March 2005 the
Government of Pakistan rest ored
the discriminatory practice of making it mandatory to include religious
identity of individuals in all new passports. This requirement had earlier
been withdrawn in November 2004. On February 12, 2007 the daily,
Khabrain, reported that the government made it necessary for an
applicant to certify his/her faith in the ‘End of Prophethood’ in the
application form for a national identity card. The newly printed forms for
the national identity card reportedly included the attestation concerning
the ‘End of Prophethood’.
Denial of freedom of expression
The Ahmadis in particular have been denied freedom of
expression and assembly. Since 1983 the Ahmadis have been denied
permission to hold their annual religious conference. On December 15, 1989
the authorities booked the entire Ahmadi population of Rabwah (the
headquarters of Ahmadis in Pakistan) in FIR No. 367/89 under Section 298C
of the PPC. The FIR remains active to date. Ahmadis are prohibited from
holding any public conference or gathering.
Ahmadi publications are banned from public sale. On
January 22, 2007 the police raided the printing press of an Ahmadi
proprietor, Tariq Mahmud Panipati, at Lower Mall in Lahore and sealed off
the press. Earlier, on September 9, 2006 the police raided the office of
the daily, Alfazl – published by the Ahmadiyya community – at
Chenab Nagar (Rabwah) in Punjab. Sultan Ahmad Dogar of Alfazl was
arrested under Sections 298B and 298C of the PPC, Section 16 of the
Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance and Clause 9 of the Anti-Terrorism
Act. Sultan Dogar was later released on bail.
Violations of economic, social and cultural rights
Minorities have been systematically denied economic,
social and cultural rights. Their lands and properties, including places
of worship, have been forcibly grabbed. Since July 2006, Hindus have been
forcibly evicted from the Panwal Das Compound area in Lyari in Karachi and
Muslim butchers turned the Shiv Mandir (temple) of the Hindus into a
slaughterhouse in connivance with the police. In another incident,
following a notification from the Evacuee Trust Property Board of March 9,
2006, the Krishna temple in Lahore was demolished to pave the way for
construction of a commercial complex. On June 18, 2006 the Lahore high
court stayed the construction of the commercial complex following a writ
petition challenging the demolition of the temple.
Christians’ lands were illegally transferred to Muslims
in Chawk Munda in Muzaffargarh district. On November 1, 2006 four
Christian farmers namely, Khurshid Mangta, Hadayat Masih, Gulzar and Nazir
Pirandita, were forcibly evicted from their lands and their crops were
destroyed. Each person lost 10 acres of cultivable land which was their
only source of livelihood. The land was reportedly transferred through the
revenue department by Haider Shah.
The Ahmadis too have not been allowed to maintain their
own graveyards. On April 22, 2007 the Lahore police bulldozed the boundary
wall of a six-acre piece of land legally procured by the Ahmadi community
to extend their graveyard. Hardliners opposed the extension.
Denial of equal treatment before the organs
administering justice
Minorities have been denied the right to equal
treatment and protection by law enforcement personnel. Often the police
refused to register cases filed by non-Muslims. In the case of the
abduction and gang rape of a minor Christian girl identified as Cheena
Bibi (12) on April 8, 2007 in Punjab, the police did not act despite
details of one of the accused being provided to the police by the victim’s
brother, Munir Masih. In cases where the police have arrested the Muslim
accused, they are often let off without investigation.
Denial of protection against bodily harm
Minorities are not provided security by the state against
bodily harm and violation of the right to life. In March 2007 the Pakistan
Hindu Council appealed to President Musharraf to direct the authorities to
provide protection and take measures to recover kidnapped Hindus from
Sakrand, Kashmore and Jacobabad. The Hindus reportedly have to pay
“protection money” to local Muslim gangs or influential persons in order
to avoid getting kidnapped for ransom. On February 6, 2007 kidnapped Hindu
engineer, Garish Kumar, was found dead in the premises of a madrassa in
the industrial area of Kotri in Sindh. The deceased’s father, Saspal Das
alleged that Garish was killed for being a Hindu.
It is a crime for Hindus to have land and beautiful
daughters. Kidnapping, rape and forcible marriage of Hindu girls is common
practice in Pakistan. In case of arrest, the accused produce a certificate
issued by any Muslim seminary stating that the kidnapped girls have
voluntarily adopted Islam and the accused have married the girls. The
courts generally do not consider the fact that most of the girls are
minors and simply accept the certificate of conversion without any
investigation. On December 31, 2 006 a Hindu girl named Deepa (17)
was abducted by her tuition teacher, Ashraf Khaskheli, a Muslim, in
Madhwani Mohala in Tharparkar district, who forcibly married her and
converted her to Islam. A certificate of marriage and conversion to Islam
was reportedly issued by Ayube Jan Sarhandi, the head of a seminary, and
the police allegedly refused to register the complaint filed by the girl’s
parents.
Many Christian families reportedly fled from their homes
following a threatening letter received from Islamic militants at
Charsadda in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) on May 8, 2007,
asking them to convert to Islam within 10 days or face dire consequences.
In June 2007 Christians of Shantinagar village in Khanewal district in
Punjab received similar threats that they should embrace Islam. The police
often failed to provide adequate protection.
Denial of the right to vote
Religious minorities have been systematically excluded from the voters’
list. On June 12, 2007 the Election Commission of Pakistan released a new
voters’ list for the upcoming general elections. Instead of a joint
voters’ list, the Ahmadis were placed on a separate voters’ list. The
secretary of the Election Commission, Kunwar Dilshad Ahmed, reportedly
justified the separate list for Ahmadis on the ground that a separate list
for the community could help its members in checking names and information
about their members.
In July 2007 the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance claimed that 20 per
cent of non-Muslim voters had been excluded from the new voters’ list.
About 18 per cent of eligible voters belonging to minorities were struck
off the new voters’ list in the NWFP. On July 26, 2007 the Supreme Court
directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure registration of all
eligible voters in the new electoral rolls.
Discrimination against the Balochis
There have been reports of indiscriminate use of firearms and bombs by
the Pakistan army and Pakistan air force against civilians while
confronting Baloch armed opposition groups. On the morning of March 30,
2007 thousands of Pakistani army soldiers entered and cordoned off the
Baloch villages of Lanju and Sagari in the Sui area near Mazari goot on
the Balochistan-Punjab border, from Punjab, while fighter jets and gunship
helicopters bombarded the villages in turns for several hours. At least 18
women, children and elderly persons were reportedly killed in the military
action. Earlier, on June 14, 2006 four members of a family, including two
women and two children aged seven and three, reportedly died in bombings
by Pakistan air force jet planes in the Gazital area, 20 km east of the
Marri tribal capital, Kahan.
On August 1, 2007 the Supreme Court issued suo motu
notices to the chief secretary and provincial police officer of
Balochistan on the rising number of disappearances. Hundreds of Balochis
have been arrested and disappeared. While the Balochistan National Party-Mengal
claimed that around 4,000 Baloch youth, mainly political activists, were
still in the custody of Pakistani intelligence agencies, the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan stated that of the 242 persons who were still
missing as of December 10, 2006, 110 were from Balochistan, 70 from Sindh,
42 from Punjab and 20 from the NWFP.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Balochistan have
been living in inhospitable situations and the government created further
obstacles. According to the United Nations agencies, there were 84,000
IDPs in Balochistan, of whom 26,000 were women and 33,000 were children as
of December 2006. The government deliberately created the humanitarian
crisis by not even recognising the presence of IDPs in the province.
When the government sought the intervention of the United
Nations to avert the humanitarian crisis on December 21, 2006, it was too
late. Due to a total blockade of the Marri and Bugti areas by the Pakistan
army, about 8,000 to 10,000 allegedly died due to malnourishment, lack of
shelter and disease. The makeshift camps had no access to potable water,
food and other basic necessities. No medicine, medical facility, doctor,
electricity or even fuel to run water pumps was provided to these areas.
The government prevented journalists and aid groups from reaching the
affected areas and therefore the extent of the man-made disaster could not
be reported. Even the assistance from the UN was sought only for the three
districts of Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Quetta and not for the Sibi and
Bolan districts. Besides, the UN was asked to carry out its relief
operations under the supervision of local authorities.
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas: The dark, dark
region
The FATA remain the dark, dark region where there is no
rule of law. This is not only because Taliban inspired armed groups seek
to impose medieval practices here but effectively, Pakistan too practises
similar medieval legal practices under the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR)
of 1901. The entire region has been deprived of any semblance of legal
reforms that took place elsewhere in Pakistan and these repressive
measures have further strengthened the al-Qaeda type practices.
The people of FATA live at the mercy of the president of
Pakistan. Under Article 247(3) of the Constitution, no act of Parliament
shall apply to the FATA or any part thereof unless the president so
directs. As the FCR, which is antithetical to due process of law, governs
the administration of justice, Pakistan has kept the region in legal
darkness.
First, the FCR provides for collective punishment of
family members or blood relatives instead of punishing only the guilty.
Second, under Section 21 of the FCR, political authorities
like the political agents and assistant political agents of the government
enjoy unbridled powers, including the powers of a) seizure, wherever they
may be found, of all or any of the members of such tribe and of all or any
property belonging to them or any of them; b) detention in safe custody of
any person or property so seized; c) confiscation of any such property
and, with like sanction, by public proclamation; d) debarring all or any
member of the tribe from all access into the (country); and e) prohibiting
all or any person within the limits of British India from all interaction
or communication of any kind whatsoever, or of any specified kind or
kinds, with such tribe or any section or members thereof.
Third, the FCR does not provide any fair trial. People
suspected of having committed a criminal offence are tried by the tribal
jirga or council which submits its recommendations regarding conviction or
acquittal to the political agent who makes a decision regarding conviction
or acquittal but is not bound by the jirga’s recommendations. Moreover,
the suspects are tried without legal representation. There is no provision
of appeal against conviction or punishment order by the political agents,
as Pakistan’s higher judiciary is barred under Article 247(7) of the
Constitution from exercising its jurisdiction in the FATA.
Tribal prisoners in the FATA regions have reportedly served two or more
sentences for the same crime. While hearing a jail writ petition by
Rahimullah, a division bench of the Peshawar high court,
consisting of Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Qaim Jan Khan,
directed the FATA security secretary to check the “unbridled” powers of
political authorities and the human rights violations carried out by them.
The assistant political agent (APA) of Bara had sentenced Rahimullah under
Section 40 of the FCR on December 15, 2003 but before the completion of
Rahimullah’s first jail term, the APA passed another order on January 14,
2005 against him in the same crime. As if that were not enough, before the
completion of Rahimullah’s second illegal jail term, the APA passed a
third conviction order on May 25, 2006 for another three years for the
same crime.
In the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the tribals of FATA have
become victims of indiscriminate attacks by Pakistan’s military. On
October 30, 2006, 82 people, including at least 12 children, were
reportedly killed in an air strike on a madrassa in Damadola in Bajaur
agency (bordering Afghanistan) in the FATA. The locals claimed that all
those killed were Islamic teachers and students.
Recommendations
In the light of the concerns expressed above, the Asian
Centre for Human Rights makes the following recommendations for
consideration by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD).
The Pakistan government should be urged to:
Ø
Submit its 15th to 20th periodic reports (to the committee) within one
year and that it should provide comprehensive reports, including the
concerns to be expressed by the CERD;
Ø Provide equal rights to the
religious minorities in all spheres of life;
Ø Religious freedom of those
serving with the organs of the state be ensured and necessary measures be
taken to enable them to take oath of office in the name of their own
belief or religion;
Ø Remove all propaganda of
hatred, religious superiority and defamation of religion from the
textbooks approved by the national curriculum wing of the federal ministry
of education;
Ø Repeal all blasphemy laws,
in particular, Section 295A, Section 295B, Section 295C, Section 298A and
Section 298B of the Pakistan Penal Code, and that the state party be asked
to provide information on the Apostasy Bill of 2006;
Ø Ensure that with regard to the alleged blasphemy cases against
children, laws on juvenile justice prevail and children are not charged or
tried under the laws applicable to adults;
Ø Take affirmative action and ensure proportional representation of
the minorities in government jobs;
Ø Abolish the administrative measures which promote hatred,
including reference to any particular faith in the passport or national
identity card, and that Ahmadis be allowed to undertake religious
pilgrimages to places of their choice;
Ø Ensure the right to freedom of expression of the religious
minorities and withdraw the ban on Ahmadi publications;
Ø Ensure the economic, social and cultural rights of the religious
minorities, including the right to land, and protect their places of
worship from appropriation by private individuals or groups and/or
forcible evictions;
Ø Launch special programmes to sensitise law enforcement personnel
on the rights of the minorities to ensure that the minorities have access
to equal treatment and protection of the organs administering justice;
Ø Develop technical cooperation programmes with the UN Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights for capacity building of law
enforcement personnel on the rights of the minorities;
Ø Take effective measures against the abduction and kidnapping of
the minorities, in particular girls and women, and their forcible
conversion to Islam;
Ø Fully implement the judgement of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to
ensure registration of all eligible voters, in particular the minorities,
in the new electoral rolls;
Ø Prohibit indiscriminate use of firearms and bombs against
civilians while confronting armed opposition groups;
Ø Respond to the suo motu notice issued by the Supreme Court on
August 1, 2007 on the rising number of disappearances in Balochistan,
establish a judicial commission of inquiry into disappearances in
Pakistan, headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, and establish
accountability for disappearances;
Ø Invite the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances to visit Pakistan;
Ø Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearance;
Ø Provide unrestricted access to the United Nations and
humanitarian agencies to the internally displaced persons in Balochistan
and elsewhere;
Ø Repeal the Frontier Crime
Regulation of 1901 from the statute books; and
Ø Take effective measures to
extend constitutional reforms to the FATA region.
n
(Excerpted from ‘Pakistan: The Land of Religious Apartheid
and Jackboot Justice’, ACHR Weekly Review, 179/07, August 6, 2007.
The ACHR Weekly Review is the weekly commentary and analysis of the
Asian Centre for Human Rights on human rights and governance issues.)
http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2007/179-07.htm
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