Pakistan: US Congressman Wolf presses Sec. Kerry for help in reinstatement of Ahmadi voting rights

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WOLF TO KERRY: PRESS PRESIDENT ZARDARI TO REPEAL DISCRIMINATORY VOTING RESTRICTIONS IN UPCOMING PAKISANI ELECTIONS - Current Law Discriminates Against Ahmadi Muslims by Requiring Voters to Reveal Religious Affiliations Upon Registering to Vote

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Congressman Frank Wolf
By Jill Shatzen | April 23, 2013

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and 32 bipartisan Members of Congress last week sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry calling for an end to the disenfranchisement of four million Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan.

In the letter, the Representatives explained that a new presidential order can rescind the 2002 Pakistani executive order that excludes Ahmadis from joint electoral rolls and forces them to register to vote on a separate supplementary voter roll in time for the country’s general elections next month.

“I am deeply troubled that Pakistan’s electoral system discriminates on the basis of religion, rendering the premise of free and fair elections a sham,” Wolf said, but added that “this pernicious regime of discrimination … is relatively easy to change.”

Wolf, co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, pointed out that in order to register to vote, each citizen must fill out a form stating his or her religious affiliation, adding “not only are matters of conscience wholly irrelevant to the exercise of this fundamental right of citizenship, but for Pakistan’s four million Ahmadi Muslims, this requirement blocks their right to vote.”

The State Department’s own recently released annual human rights report confirmed this reality indicating that, “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.”

Notably, even the Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken notice of the exclusion of Ahmadi Muslims from the joint electoral rolls, and has ordered authorities to explain how such a system can be consistent with equal right of all citizens, irrespective of religion, to vote.

Appealing to shared principles of equality and justice, the letter urged: “Mr. Secretary, if this—the first time in Pakistan’s history that a democratically elected government peacefully passes power to another through elections—is truly to be a watershed moment, we cannot stand idly by and allow four million Ahmadi Muslims to remain disenfranchised and outside the electoral process.”

The full text of the letter can be found here.

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