Pakistan: Alienated

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"Ahmadis don't have the right to live in Pakistan. They don't have the right to be on any post in Pakistan. All of them who are on important posts in Pakistan should be sacked immediately."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Friday Times
By Mohammad Shehzad | May 10, 2013

There are nearly three million registered minority voters in Pakistan, according to NADRA, of which 200,000 belong to the Ahmadiyya Community. All of the minorities will cast their votes on May 11 under a joint electorate system, except the Ahmadis. There is a separate voters list for them, that has been alienating them from the democratic process since 1977.

The Ahmadiyya Community took part in the creation of Pakistan lending full support to All India Muslim League. At that time, Ahmadis were legally Muslims although many Muslim clerics believed they were not.

Sir Zafarullah Khan, Pakistan's first foreign minister, was an Ahmadi. The only Pakistani Nobel laureate - Dr Abdus Salam - was also an Ahmadi.

The Ahmadiyya Community had been participating in the elections in India, and after 1947, they had been a part of the political process in Pakistan. They took part in the elections under a joint electorate system until 1977, despite the Second Amendment in the Constitution that declared Ahmadis as non-Muslim in 1974. It was military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq, who in a bid to legitimize his unconstitutional rule, wooed religious leaders by marginalizing the minorities by scrapping the joint electorate system in 1985 through the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. After that, there were separate electoral lists for minorities. Muslims voters had to sign an affidavit that said:

"Ahmadis don't have the right to live in Pakistan"

"I solemnly affirm that I believe completely and unconditionally in the finality of the prophet-hood of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and that I am not a follower of any person who claims prophet-hood on the basis of any interpretation of this word, neither I believe such a claimant to be a reformer or a prophet, nor I belong to Qadyani or Lahori group or call myself Ahmadi."

Under international pressure, the next military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf revoked separate electorate for minorities, but made a special exception for Ahmadis under the chief executive's order No 15 of 2002 published in the Gazette of Pakistan (extraordinary) issued at Islamabad on June 17, 2002. The argument is, if the Ahmadis are non-Muslims according to the Constitution, then they must have equal rights that the same Constitution guarantees to other non-Muslims. Ironically, all the non-Muslims can cast votes under the joint electorate except the Ahmadis. This makes them inferior to other minorities. If the Constitution has to be followed, then Ahmadis too should be given the right to vote like other non-Muslims.

The same discrimination kept the Ahmadis away from polling stations in 2002 and 2008. Other minorities, however, cast their votes under joint electorate. Thus, the Ahmadis have been deprived of their democratic right since 1977.

The Ahmadiyya Community has called on the Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and other officials of the Election Commission in the form of a delegation and apprised them of this discrimination. But despite promises, no action has been taken to address the grievances.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is avoiding the issue. This writer made dozens of calls to various officials of ECP, but none were ready to comment. However, speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official disclosed that the ECP did not want to resolve the issue because it was too sensitive. "Our secretary once said that the day we decide to include Ahmadis in the joint electorate system, we will spend the night in our graves," he said. "He told us to let the politicians deal with the matter."

The total population of Ahmadis in Pakistan is now 600,000. It used to be around one million, but at least 400,000 have left the country because of persistent and legalized persecution.

"I will chase every Ahmadi in any part of the world and will not spare them," said moon-sighting committee chairman Mufti Muneebur Rehman ( Ummat, March 18, 2013). "Ahmadis don't have the right to live in Pakistan. They don't have the right to be on any post in Pakistan. All of them who are on important posts in Pakistan should be sacked immediately."

"More than 210 Ahmadis have been killed since 1984 after the Zia-regime promulgated anti-Ahmadi laws," says Salimuddin, spokesman of the Ahmadiyya Community based in Rabwah.

The proceedings of the parliament that led to the Second Amendment in 1974 had been sealed for 30 years. According to Salimuddin, they were printed on the order of a court. A news report said the outgoing National Assembly speaker Fehmida Mirza had ordered that they be made public, but Salimuddin says they have not been made public yet.

Pakistan is a signatory to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and must abolish all the discriminatory laws against the minorities.

The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist/researcher. Archived work: www.pol-dev.com Email: yamankalyan@gmail.com



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