A dose of our own medicine

Zafarullah Khan was Pakistan's first foreign minister. We now can't even imagine a Ahmadi being in a position of power

Some time back, I was looking to hire domestic help in Lahore. It was an eye-opening experience — but not for the obvious reasons. The maid and I had almost come to the end of our negotiations when she fretfully disclosed to me in hushed tones that she was a practicing Christian. Verifying if I was a Muslim, she voiced what appeared to her an obvious impediment to our proposed arrangement.

She asked if I would be willing to hire a Christian for tasks that involved the kitchen, including cleaning the utensils I as a Muslim ate in and cooked with. Her apprehension, apparently based on past experiences, and her gratefulness that the job offer was not rescinded due to her disclosure, shook me to the core. Discussions on this incident with some of my acquaintances made me realise that many did not find her concerns to be unfounded.

This episode brought home to me, on a very personal level and unlike ever before, the realisation of the kind of marginalisation and ostracisation the minorities of Pakistan, unbeknownst to us, probably feel on a daily basis. Our Land of the Pure had been created so that all its citizens could be free. The Quaid-e-Azam had stated in his speech of August 11, 1947: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the state.” Our Constitution, at least on paper, recognises the rights of minorities. Article 20, under the chapter titled “Fundamental Rights” states that “every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion”. The preamble to the Constitution also provides that “adequate provision shall be made for the minorities freely to profess and practice their religions…” Unfortunately we have not bothered to honour the sentiments behind our independence or our Constitution, which were to ensure that every person living in this country was a citizen “first, second and last”, and that we all lived as “equal citizens of one State”.

It is relevant to highlight that whilst at the time of Partition, almost 23 per cent of Pakistan’s population comprised non-Muslim citizens, today the same figure has declined to approximately three per cent. In fact, Jinnah had nominated a Hindu, Jogendar Nath Mandal to Pakistan’s very first cabinet, and as our very first law minister. Jinnah also appointed Sir Zafarullah Khan, an Ahmadi, as Pakistan’s first foreign minister. Today however, most in Pakistan allow Hindus and Christians to hold only symbolic appointments in our state apparatus, and cannot imagine an Ahmadi in a position of power in the government. In fact, minorities such as Christians, Hindus and Sikhs have become targets of bomb attacks and even their graveyards and places of worship are not left unscathed. The majority of Muslims in Pakistan were born into the religion of Islam and are not converts. How would it feel to be ostracised based on the family and religion you were born in — a matter in which you have no choice? Such is our majority’s fear of minorities that we have curtailed their most basic rights — that of practicing their religion and living their lives without interference. Try imagining life in Pakistan for the minorities in each of the real-life reported stories below:

In mid-December 2015, in one of Lahore’s largest IT markets, the Hafeez Center, anti-Ahmadi posters that read “We do not do business with Ahmadis” or “Ahmadis are not allowed” were displayed at certain shops. Not only are Ahmadis not welcome in some markets of Pakistan, where presumably they would pay for what they purchase, they are also not allowed to practice their own religion based on how they interpret it.

In late September 2015, the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore announced a number of job vacancies. These included the job of a lift operator, a ward boy, a security guard, an aya and two sanitary workers — a male and a female. Of all these jobs, the requirements for the post of sanitary worker were as follows: “Only Non- Muslim Persons who belong to Minorities will be accommodated.” Could we not have come up with any other jobs under the guise of affirmative action?

In November 2014, a Christian couple and their unborn child were burnt alive in a kiln by a mob — on the presumption that the couple had desecrated the Holy Quran. Burnt to their deaths based on an accusation that was never even brought to court to be proved! The Muslim inhabitants of that town, the self-proclaimed defenders of God and the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), had taken matters into their own hands.

The list of incidents and atrocities really just goes on and on. Yes, these groups are minorities in Pakistan, but Muslims are also minorities in various countries of the world. What if each of these incidents happened to Muslims in another country, maybe in a country such as France or the US? Would we have remained as complacent? Our response to the possibility of similar en masse discrimination in a country where we are a minority can be seen most recently in the reaction to Donald Trump’s Islamophobic comments and his statements of possibly refusing entry into the US to Muslims. We are appalled at his suggestion of Muslims having separate identification cards! But we are not the only ones — thousands across the world have stood up to speak for Muslims, including American non-Muslims, American leaders and even many in the British parliament, i.e., representatives from countries where Muslims remain a minority. How can we allow such discrimination and treatment being dished out to our own citizens in our own country and then complain about how we are treated in other parts of the world? And forget about complaining, we expect people from other parts of the world — non-Muslims particularly — to speak up on our behalf, to defend us and judge us differently from extremists, who commit acts of terror in the name of our religion. Surely, the discriminated should understand the unfairness, the fear and the consequences of discrimination! Surely, we can learn to speak up for and treat our minorities with respect — if not for their sake, then for the sake of our own conscience.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st,  2016.

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