9 Minorities of Pakistan

Md Nazeer Hussain

Learning Outcomes:

1. To introduce students to the socio-economic and political debates that surround the issue of minority rights in Pakistan.
2. Students would be able to understand the birth of identity politics, constitutional guarantees and the issue of political participation in the light of the political situation which was prevalent at the time of Pakistan’s emergence as a new state.

Introduction

The harmonious co-existence of different minorities groups within the larger population of the State is a good sign of multiculturalism. The State plays a central role for the protection and promotion of rights of minorities. The State sometimes systematically suppresses the survival of minorities with the perilous legislations to gain majority favour. The complicate issues of minority rights protection within the boundary of the State has become global concern. The formation of the League after the scourge of the World War I was actually an attempt to minimize the sufferings of the minority communities around the world. The failed mandates however of the League are hired by the broader plane, what we know today, the United Nations. The vulnerability of the group was one of the reasons to establish immediately the Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities in 1947, a subsidiary body of the Commission on Human Rights of the UN. The area study, because of the persistent violations of minority rights around the world, has been elaborated many fold. The United Nations has adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities in 1992, one of the most comprehensive instruments on the protection of minority rights. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, adopted in November 1994 imparts legally binding obligations for the protection of national minorities.

The demise of colonial regimes brought disintegration of many of the nation States. The ‘two nation theory’ of the British Empire in the Indian Sub-Continent finally brought the division of India into two nation viz., Hindustan and Pakistan. Certain communities on either side faced the wrath of group/majoritarian feelings which were almost hidden during the greater part of the British rule. The making of Pakistan came with the plight of minority groups left within the territory of the State. The official position only recognises the existence of religious minorities in Pakistan and no ethnic or linguistic minorities as well as indigenous people. The 1973 and the subsequent Constitution describes the presence of minorities but nowhere defined the term. The most recent national census of 1998 as well as the twentieth periodic report of Pakistan – 2008 submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination restrict itself only to the religious minorities including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Parsis, Buddhists and Sikhs. This module attempts to explain the general history of minority communities of Pakistan, their present status and the various problems facing them.

Origin of the Identity Politics

The clash of identity sometimes imposes heavy duty on minority community to prove them under the umbrella of national identity. One of the immediate and urgent problems of the newly formed State as well as independent from their colonial masters after the Second World War was to build the nation as well as national identity to be recognized by rest of the world. Tikekar (2009, 127) explains how the British administration managed to convert the social diversity of the South Asian region into social division, emphatically organizing religion as a base of identity. The State identity of Pakistan is historically bound to the acceptance of the demands of the Muslims as a religious minority during the British rule in the undivided India. The dilemma of majority and minority, explains Tikekar, which was merely political term to get the electoral benefits during the British rule, consolidated the self attachment towards the community.

The search for national identity was an immediate problem for Pakistan from its very inception. The demand of separate nation required some thesis to be separate which could define the distinct national identity. Pakistan ultimately, chosen to reject everything which was Indian under the recourse of Islam. The minority identity of Muslims during the British rule got transformed into majority identity immediately after the partition and rest of the population was imposed with the minority identity. The dilemma of State identity of Pakistan remains ambiguous as majority Muslims identity i.e., Islam as a State religion subjugates the neutrality of State among different religions.

The scholars around the world have discussed many factors which enhance the identity feelings towards the community. In case of South Asia, I. A. Rehman, Director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan observes in his paper ‘Minorities in South Asia’ (2003) several factors for the plight of minorities including; the continuation of colonial patriarchal and centralized State structures effectively excluding minority groups constitutionally, theoretical safeguards without assured implementation, socio-economic discriminations, ineffective policies of national integration, and politics of religion. Rehman has indicated one more factor which impinges minority plight in the region especially Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan that he calls ‘principle of reciprocity’. The atrocities over minority in one region essentially disturb the security of minority and its institutions in other region. The Babri Masjid demolition of 1992 in India was not a lone instance but it came in conjunction with the demolition of many Temples of Pakistan. Such instances more often amplify the internal integration of the community loosening the integration with the majority community, the national integration.

Pakistan and Minorities

The creation of Pakistan was itself a move to safeguards the political, social, cultural, and religious issues of minority Muslims of undivided India. The notion of bitterness during British rule envisaged politicians of Pakistan to protect, as Manchanda (2009, 55) discussed, religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative, and other rights of minorities. The architect of Pakistan (Quaid-i-A’zam) Muhammad Ali Jinnah earnestly announced that religion, caste, creed, etc., have nothing to do with the business of the State. The landmark speech of Mr. Jinnah on Aug 11, 1947 to the first Constituent Assembly enabled State affairs to be communally harmonious and contiguous towards the protection of minorities.

One of the leading personalities and the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan Sir Mohammad Zafarullah Khan envisioned the protection of minorities as Islam was the religion of widest tolerance and stated that Quran never restricted the compulsion on matters of faith. With such strong foundation for the protection of minorities in Pakistan, the first Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan introduced the Objective Resolution in 1949 which was perhaps seen most incompatible with the present day minority of Pakistan. The Resolution inculcated free and fervour life of minorities at par with the Muslim citizens of Pakistan. The Prime Minister further welcomed non-Muslims during the debate to the government services of Pakistan. The visions of founding fathers of Pakistan were not only an ideology but were reflected in the common perceptions e.g., K. K. Dutta a leading Congress Party member highly expressed his gratitude in the Objective Resolution as a Constitution meant for the people of Pakistan – Muslims or non-Muslims.

Interesting Fact:

A bilateral treaty was signed between the first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the first Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaqat Ali Khan in 1950 to safeguard the cross-border interests of the minorities.

Jinnah’s visions of religious freedom and tolerance, however was heftily undermined by the subsequent leaders inclined toward the Islamization of the State. The religio-political forces attempted to influence constitutional mandates by imposing higher degree of Islamic identity through Shari’a laws making survival of minorities difficult. The period of General Zia ul Haq blatantly overturned the expectations of minorities by introducing stringent laws particularly blasphemy laws and the separate electorates. The systematic institution of the Objective Resolution, as discussed Ahmed (1999, 121), to freely profess and practice religion of their own has been trickily amended in 1985 to the level of omission of the term freely, indirectly imposing religion other than Islam unconstitutional. The increase of Islamic extremism and the insurgency of radical Islam such as terrorism on the other hand further intensified the Islamization of the State. Manchanda (2009, 229- 30) explains that “the prolonged confusion over whether Pakistan ought to be a ‘land for Muslims’ or an ‘Islamic State’ has caused much uncertainty over the question of religious minorities”. She continues explaining there may not be overt discrimination in the Constitution; intolerance is manifested in the everyday mode of conduct.

Mahmud (1995, 40-41) argues that political compromise, Constitutional guarantees and International codes of conduct to combat the repression of religious minorities only works when there is actual practices. He further concludes that political will, Constitutional guarantees, and the International norms were well envisioned for the protection of minorities in the beginning of the State formation of Pakistan. But the successive political crises and the increasing religious orthodoxy eroded the principle of tolerance resulting heavy challenges for the religious minorities to survive in the State. The report of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable because of their Belief – 2014 has highlighted the impact of increased intolerance and military extremism in recent years as a greater challenge to the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

Interesting Facts:

It is a welcome step by the HRCP that it has established a Working Group in 2012 to resolve the continuous sufferings of the religious minorities across the country. In 2013, it has held two meetings in August focussing on political rights and representation while in December on new challenges and how to address them.

The above report of HRCP has also attempted to highlight the realities behind the religious intolerance in Pakistan. It thus says that at the time of formation of Pakistan whatever has occur the demolition of worship places, from then no interference reported over worship places even in small villages where religious minorities are very less in number. But in recent years incident of demolitions has become frequent. The Working Group of HRCP observes the reason behind such incidents including others is the involvement of the ‘Land Mafia’ under the shield of religious sentiment (Islamization). They find minorities very soft targets and thus easily attack their worship places and in most of the cases grab the land to develop the housing plans.

The report published in 2014 by the HRCP, ‘State of Human Rights in 2013’ describes how violence against minorities in recent years have increased manifold with the involvement of the extremist militant group in the name of religion having support of other local factors. The report further blames the failure of the government’s machinery to protect minorities from faith-based violence, hate speech, intimidation or intolerance. According to South Asia Human Rights Violators Index – 2008 published by Asian Centre for Human Rights, Pakistan ranked four out of SAARC countries and continued to remain a dangerous place for the religious minorities and ranked poorly on the rights of minorities.

Population	National Census 1998	Minority Rights Group  International 2014	Gregory (2012, 196)
Total	175 Million
Christian	2.8 Million (1.59%)	2 – 3 Million	3 – 5 Million
Hindus	3.2 Million (1.85%)	7  Million or  even exceeding	2 – 4 Million
Ahmadiya	0.4 Million (0.22%)	600,000 or even in Million	285,000
Rest	0.34%

Of the total population of Pakistan around 96% is overwhelmingly Muslims comprising roughly 80% Sunni and 20% Shia.

Constitutional Guarantees

The Constitution is the prime guarantor and the protector of the rights of the minorities. In Pakistan, right from the speech of Jinnah to the first Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947 to the Objective Resolution of 1949 provisions to safeguard the interests of minorities are well adjudicated. The Objective Resolution which became preamble to the first Constitution of 1956 heftily talked about the protection of minorities on the land of Pakistan without discrimination to race, colour, creed, and religion etc., including in public services, educational institutions, vocations, besides equality before the law and equal protection of the law. The second Constitution of 1962 followed almost the same path enhancing more religious freedoms and tolerances.

The third Constitution of 1973 effective even today with many amendments thereof, carried the legitimate interest of minorities further by elaborating the Fundamental Rights of all the citizens irrespective of their religion. In this connection Article 20, 21, 22 are worth mention explaining freedom to profess and manage religious institution, safeguard to educational institution with respect to religion and the freedom of instruction and admission to the religious institution respectively.

The turmoil to the life of minorities appeared with the influence of religio-political leaders and the Islamic organizations forcing government to Islamize the Constitution under Shari’a codes. During General Zia regime under such influences – solely to get their support to run the government uninterrupted – many draconian laws were introduced to the existing provisions of the minorities. Prominent among them was the ‘blasphemy laws’ and the ‘separate electorates’. The blasphemy law under Pakistani Penal Code 295A, 295B, 295C are the legacy of British Administration to curb people desecrating the religious sentiment of others. In Pakistan, practically blasphemy laws are used to persecute the non-Muslim minorities particularly Ahmadis and Christians. But the biggest question here is how and why dormant and voiceless minority community dares to blaspheme knowing a definite persecution in the hand of majority. It seems a political move to suppress the minority community. It is nowhere explained although booked under the law, why a Christian boy of 12 years old ignorant of the things (Salamat Masih) dares to make graffiti on the wall of mosque. In most of the cases of blasphemy, the accused is being persecuted before the charge is being approved. According to Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 (Pakistan) by the US Department of State, “Lower courts often did not require adequate evidence in blasphemy cases, and some accused and convicted persons spent years in jail before higher courts eventually overturned their convictions or ordered them freed”. In this controversial game no else is at stake but the minorities.

The other Constitutional discriminations introduced are Hudood Ordinances (law of witness), Personal Laws, and Qanoon-e-Shahadah (law of evidence). The Hudood under Islam devalues the testimony of two non-Muslims or two women equal to one male Muslim. The real spirit of Hudood can only be practiced in a true Islamic State not a State like Pakistan where common portfolio of Islam is blurred or misinterpreted officially. Thus Hudood implemented in such a scenario is an open violation of the minority’s rights. The lack of mechanisms to register the marriage of Hindu and Christian most often appears with a burden to prove the marriage through invitation cards and photographs of marriage.

Political Participation

The most effective tool to make the minorities enjoying full benefits of the governance is rather participation in the mainstream political base of the State. This is long cherished in Pakistan to minorities lagging behind separate electorate for decades. General Zia through the Eighth Amendment in 1985 created separate electorate system, whereby Christians and other minorities did not vote in the same elections as Muslims, but rather voted separately for a fixed number of national and provincial representatives. Ten seats were reserved in national assembly, four each for Christian and Hindu, one for Sikh and Parsi together and one for Ahmadi. The system was highly discriminatory not allowing minorities to vote for the candidate outside his own religion ultimately cutting off from the mainstream political base. The system was too applicable for provincial elections completely diminishing the political desires of the minorities.

Ahmed (1999, 124) argues that separate electorate was introduced in pre-partition India to uplift the political demand of Muslims as an affirmative action, which during General Zia’s regime has been transformed into a right of a Muslim to impose the system on the minorities as a discriminatory measure. While one of the leading Christian scholar Jacob (2002, 154) supports the notion that the system of separate electorate was demanded by minorities (particularly middle and upper middle class) themselves earlier in 1960’s and 1970’s before the imposition in 1985.

The political apartheid of separate electorate was ruled out in 2002 by General Musharraf making minorities to enjoy mainstream political life of the nation. Minorities can now participate equally in the electoral process besides 10 reserved seats in a lower house of 342 and 4 in upper house of 104. However, according to the report published by the Minority Rights Group International in 2014, the participation of minorities is still limited in a real sense as political parties rarely offer them to contest general seats. If they do so or contest as independent candidate meet with other religious resistances. The reserved seats are never filled by general election instead candidates are nominated by the political parties after the general election.

The system of separate electorate was overturned in 2002 still complete voting rights are not given to all the minorities. The government required voters to indicate their religion when registering to vote. To register to vote, the government required Ahmadis to declare themselves as non-Muslims. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, and as a result the community was unable to vote.

Socio-economic Life

The real test of prosperity of any community in a State heavily lies what they enjoy socially and economically. The situation of Pakistani minority groups from the very beginning is no more stable on the scale of socio-economic status viz. education, employment, social security etc. The MRGI in its report of 2014 highlights thus, “beyond discriminatory laws and constitutional injunctions, religious minorities in Pakistan encounter discrimination in a variety of public spaces on a daily basis, including school, work, local neighbourhoods and the media”.

The continuous socioeconomic exclusion, clarifies Manchanda (2009, 232) makes Hindu and Christian the most economically backward segment of the population. Apart from urban Hindus who are educate and in professions like teaching and medicine, the majority of them are poor, uneducated and perform menial jobs states Tikekar (2009, 129). She further notes Christian in Pakistan is ‘second class citizens’ who live below the poverty line. Ahmed (1999, 132) in his study finds the widespread existence of bonded labour as well as slave labour to repress Christian and Hindu respectively. According to the Global Slavery Index 2013 Pakistan is ranked third worst place in the world for forced labour and debt bondage.

Interesting Facts:

In twenty first century, minorities mostly Christians are treated untouchables in various parts of Pakistan by Muslims. They are not allowed to drink water from the sources Muslims drink, not allowed to use utensils in hotels Muslims use.

There is a widespread discrimination in educational institutions and curriculum texts are highly controversial provocating hatred towards minorities. The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), a Pakistani rights group, used the opportunity to examine hate content in school textbooks and advocate for the removal of biased or hostile material but evidences shows problems still persist due to lack of accountability on part of government.

The lower status of minorities often denied them the benefits of social security as the International Religious Freedom Report for 2013, US Department of State highlights that there is no legal mechanism for the government to register the marriages of Hindus and Sikhs, causing women of those religious groups difficulties in inheritance, accessing health services, voting, obtaining a passport, and buying or selling property.

Conclusion

The persistent persecution and the targeted killings of minorities of Pakistan even in recent times undermine all the claims of their situations improved. The agencies from around the world regularly attempted to raise the voice in favour to minimize the vulnerability of the community. The retraction of separate electorates is a welcome step of the General Musharraf government in 2002. But the inclusion since then of minority in the national politics of the State stills a distant dream. The election of the representatives of minorities should be made more and more participatory, the only means to uplift and ameliorate the near extinct condition of the community. In the social arena religious tolerance must be promoted through different means by avoiding radicalism and extremism. The education system and employment space must not provide rooms to discrimination to evolve. The draconian laws like blasphemy and all must immediately withdraw and no citizens (majority) should be empowered to misuse and suppress minority under the guise.

The story of sufferings of minority in Pakistan is unending, what is needed earnestly is the accountability from the side of government. The machinery of the government for the said purpose lacks political will to discharge the duties incumbent enhancing suppression and in some ways supporting the perpetrator of violence against the minority.

Reference

1. Ahmed, Khaled “Pakistan: Violation of the Rights of Minorities in Pakistan” in Banerjee, Sumanata (edit.) (1999) Shrinking Space: Minority Rights in South Asia Nepal: South Asia Forum for Human Rights
2. Hass, Michael (2014) International Human Rights: A Comparative Introduction (2nd edition) New York: Routledge
3. Jacob, Peter “The identity Question for Christian in Pakistan” in Hasan, Monirul ans Ghosh, Lipi (edits.) (2002) Religious Minorities in South Asia: Selected Essays on Post-Colonial Situations Vol.1 New Delhi: Manak
4. Manchanda, Rita (2009) The No Nonsense Guide to Minority Rights in South Asia New Delhi: Sage
5. Tikekar, Maneesha “Non-Muslims in an Islamic Republic: Religious Minorities in Pakistan” in Ghosh, Lipi (edit.) (2009) Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario New Delhi: Routledge
6. Walbridge, Linda S. “The Christians of Pakistan: The Interaction of Law and Caste in Maintaining “Outsider” Status” in Shatzmiller, Maya (edit.) (2005) Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies McGill-Queen’s University Press