Fact are Facts: 2010 floods and denial of aid to Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan | Analysis

...[H]undreds of members of the Ahmadi minority religious group, were denied aid and turned away from shelters by local officials in Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, and Rajanpur districts.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Health & Human Rights Journal
By Atif M. Malik | HHR - Vol 13, No 1 (2011) | July 2011

[Editor's Note: Full version of this document with complete and proper citations is found beyond the 'more' link below]

During the catastrophic floods of 2010 in Pakistan, approximately 500 internally displaced families belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam were denied humanitarian relief.

The failure of international agencies and Pakistan’s government to protect basic human rights in the context of disaster relief raises profound questions. If all humanitarian work associated with natural disasters must be governed by canons of human rights, how should international agencies deal with legally empowered official discrimination?


A review of the history of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan reveals decades of state-sanctioned persecution, particularly through its anti-blasphemy laws, and poses a serious challenge to the international community. When effective intervention is predicated on cooperation with state institutions, how can international relief agencies avoid becoming implicated in official discrimination?

The denial of flood aid to Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community highlights the need for concerted action in disaster settings to prevent discrimination against vulnerable groups. Discriminatory legislation is not only a violation of basic norms enshrined in international compacts, it is a key problem for disaster relief.

During the 2010 monsoon season, heavy rainfall and record flooding created one of the worst natural disasters in Pakistan’s history. The floods affected more than 18 million people, including over 10 million children. One fifth of Pakistan’s total land area was flooded, 2.2 million hectares of crops were destroyed, 1,980 people lost their lives, and 1.7 million homes were damaged or destroyed.

In the aftermath of the disaster, millions of internally displaced flood victims flocked to temporary camps. Their survival required immediate assistance: clean drinking water and food, secure housing, and medical care. However, hundreds of members of the Ahmadi minority religious group, were denied aid and turned away from shelters by local officials in Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, and Rajanpur districts.

The problem seems to have been that most relief from international sources was coordinated through local institutions. As described in news reports:

    40 Ahmadi families who took shelter in a state run school at Jhakar Iman Shah did not receive any relief because “relief packages are being distributed through local lawmakers who have been told by the district administration that the Ahmadis are not eligible for any support.” 

    “At least 100 members of the [Ahmadi]community from Hussainwala and Masroorabad were trapped at Shahjamal ... they [the Ahmadis] asked the district police officer and the district coordinator officer to provide a boat or to rescue the trapped people but they did not take notice” due to local clerics issuing an edict to not help Ahmadis.4

    “500 community members from the areas of Basti Lashari, Basti Allahdad Dareeshak and from Basti Azizabad were displaced. Their houses were washed away and the government and local clerics ignored them … they were not allowed to stay in state-run schools or in camps, therefore the majority of them were living on the rooftops of their inundated houses” [until rescued by other members of the Ahmadi Muslim Community].

    “40 other [Ahmadi] community members rented a house but after two days their landlord was forced by local clerics to evict them.”

    “200 families, who have been displaced from Basti Rindan and Basti Sohrani by flooding, took shelter in a state-run school at Jhok Utra but within days the local administration forced them to leave the school … local administration later told them that people from surrounding areas did not want the Ahmadis in the relief camp. And that the administration could not allow them to stay at the camp as it could create a law and order situation.”

    “The local mullahs [religious clerics] told the civil administration [by direct threat] not to give them [the Ahmadis] any help.”

    “[E]xpulsion of displaced Ahmedis from a government school in Dera Ghazi Khan and from rented lodgings in south Punjab following cleric’s pressure as well as the issuance of edicts by clerics that the affected Ahmedis must not be provided help.”

    “[M]embers of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community, who were caught up in the raging floods around the Central Punjab town of Muzaffargarh, were not rescued from their homes because rescuers felt that Muslims must be given priority.”

Other minority groups in Pakistan also reported government apathy and discrimination. Members of the Sikh community in Pakistan, according to one report, were abandoned in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and had to arrange their own rescue. Additionally, Christians in Punjab reported discrimination during flood relief efforts.  However, the case of the Ahmadiyya community stands out since their long-standing persecution is wholly legalized and even encouraged by the government of Pakistan.

Humanitarian assistance has traditionally been the primary focus of disaster relief. Less attention has been given to the protection of human rights during disaster relief efforts. When human rights are not sufficiently accounted for, the consequences in disaster relief include unequal access to assistance, and discrimination in which aid agencies can become unintentionally complicit.

In Section I of this study, I review the relationship between human rights and humanitarian work associated with natural disasters. In Section II, I summarize the longstanding history of persecution of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan. In Section III. I describe the specific health-related obligations pertaining to Ahmadis displaced during the 2010 Pakistan floods. Section IV concludes with a critical analysis of human rights violations of Ahmadis in Pakistan during that period.

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