PPP MPA to quit assembly seat in protest

Rafique asks CJ to take suo motu notice, set up commission to investigate attacks.

LAHORE: MPA Pervez Rafique, the Punjab president of the PPP Minorities Wing, is to resign from his assembly seat in protest at the burning of Christian homes in Badami Bagh and the provincial government’s failure to stop it.

Rafique led a rally in front of the Punjab Assembly on Sunday at which the protesters shouted slogans condemning the PML-N-led government. He said that he would launch a movement against the Punjab government unless it disassociated itself from militant groups. He said that he would submit his resignation to the assembly speaker in the coming days.

The Punjab government had repeatedly allowed attacks on Christians, Rafique said. It had spent billions of rupees on building the Metro Bus System, but had failed to maintain law and order. He claimed that the PML-N had struck a seat-adjustment deal with banned militant outfits for the upcoming elections.



In his letter of resignation, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, Rafique said that at least 180 houses belonging to Christians in Joseph Colony had been burnt. He alleged that government officials were complicit in the attack.

“We have witnessed a lot of attacks on Christian villages, Churches and colonies during the government of Shahbaz Sharif. PML-N workers are at the root of all these incidents, attempting to take the properties of the Christian community by force,” read the letter.

He urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the incident and set up a high-level commission to also investigate other incidents in the Punjab in recent years where Christians and other minority groups had been victimised.

He said that legal action must be taken against the “5,000” rioters who burnt Christian property, and burnt “hundreds of Holy Bibles, Holy Qurans and other religious books”.

“I ... resign from my seat [in protest] against the Punjab government, which has totally failed to protect, and secure the lives, properties and churches of the Christians and other minorities in the Punjab.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2013.