Pakistan is also for the minorities

There are a few things that really wrench the heart strings. Like attacking and slaughtering members of a defenceless ethnic minority. Or bombing clusters of unsuspecting citizens, which invariably include women and children. Or burning the homes of a religious minority. The new flavour of the month is orange, the colour of an arson attack. This time, it was the Christians who were at the receiving end of the fuse. There were the usual reactions. His Lordship took suo-motu notice. The government expressed the usual regrets. An inquiry was set up, the results of which nobody will read or implement. The police and Rangers, as usual, timed their arrival well after the place looked like Mannheim after an RAF raid in World War II. And all this was happening while President Asif Zardari was doing his bit for president and country by trying to solve the energy crisis. And Qaim Ali Shah, master of conciliation and compromise, was singing his swan song and gloating over the glorious achievements of the PPP government in Sindh during the last five years. However, the latest information that has come down the pike is that there has been a slight stirring in the wind in Lahore. After all, somebody remembered that there are Pakistani Christians in the army, navy and air force who have bravely fought and defended their homeland in the pointless wars with India.

The minorities in Pakistan continue to live in constant dread of being attacked or molested. In fact, a newspaper wag in the Karachi Press Club suggested that as so many amendments have been made to the 1973 Constitution, which has now become a moth-eaten document, there is a need to amend paragraph six of the Preamble to the 1973 Constitution as successive governments appear to have been totally incapable of implementing the relevant clause. In case some of you haven’t seen the passage, it reads as follows: “Wherein adequate protection should be made for the minorities freely to profess and practice their religions and their cultures”. Without being accused of quibbling with words, the declaration used is “should” not “will”. Does this mean that protection will be left to the pleasure and caprice of the government in power? The only time such a clause was wilfully implemented in Pakistan was during the period 1947 to 1970. There was, of course, the episode of the Qadiani riots in Punjab. But the historical fact is that the Ahmadis were not officially declared non-Muslims until they were excommunicated by the parliament led by Mr ZA Bhutto, which was formed after the eastern wing was wrenched out of the combine.

In his column in The Express Tribune, Yaqoob Khan Bangash did a bit of tongue-in-cheek sermonising when he asked all minorities to leave Pakistan. Even if this was financially possible, where the hell would these people go? The days of Ayub Khan when Pakistanis could travel freely to all parts of the globe at four rupees to the dollar are long forgotten. Nobody wants Pakistanis anywhere, anymore, except in parts of the Gulf where foreigners have no legal rights, and the Far East, provided they bring plenty of cash. They are isolated at immigration counters at Western airports, on suspicion of being potential terrorists. Mind you, Pakistani Hindus and Christians have a much better chance of getting a US visa than somebody with a strictly identifiable Muslim name. So those who can make it, get the hell out of here. Those who can’t should pray that the next Lucomo who misgoverns the country should keep the promises he makes to the masses.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2013.