Religious freedom: Christian worker claims harassment by colleagues

Ijaz says he hasn’t been able to go to work because of it.

LAHORE: Nauman Ijaz, the only Christian draftsman in the Punjab Architecture Department, has not shown up at his office for six months. He says two of his colleagues have been badgering him to convert to Islam and he fears that the situation might go awry.

His father Ijaz Joh sent an application to the Punjab chief architect on September 18, 2014, requesting him to look into why his son, a draftsman in BPS-13 at the PAD’s Dera Ghazi Khan office, was being harassed and to rectify the issue.



Joh said that his son’s colleagues Muhammad Ashiq and Muhammad Hussain had asked him to embrace Islam. He said his son tried to stay away from them but their insistence took an aggressive turn last year during Ramazan. Joh said that they tried to take him to a mosque and became aggressive after he refused. Since then, fearing for his life, Ijaz has stayed away from his office, his father said.

Ijaz told The Express Tribune that initially he used to brush off his colleagues remarks. He said when he told his father about what happened in Ramazan, he asked him to stay at home.

Ijaz said he had informed Muhammad Ashfaq, the PAD deputy director of the DG Khan office, about the matter. “At first, Ashfaq was sympathetic, but later he washed his hands off the matter,” he said.

Ijaz then turned to the PAD chief architect and asked him to investigate the matter. The chief architect appointed Deputy Director Mubashar Abbas Naqvi as investigation officer to look into the matter.

Ijaz recorded his statement before Naqvi at his office in Lahore on Monday. He said he had told Naqvi that he would stay away from the office till the department took stern measures to prevent religious harassment at the workplace.

Human Liberation Commission chairman Aslam Pervaiz Sahotra told The Express Tribune that he had accompanied Ijaz to Naqvi’s office.

He said he had also met Chief Architect Zahid Javed Raja. Sahotra said that Ijaz was the only Christian employed at the PAD. He said his colleagues had created a hostile work environment for him. He said the authorities should look into the matter seriously.

Muhammad Ashiq, one of the colleagues Ijaz has accused, told The Express Tribune that he had not asked Ijaz to give up his religion. He said Ijaz had levelled the allegation against him just to get transferred to another office. He said no inquiry officer had summoned him or asked him about the issue so far.

Naqvi said that he had recorded the statements of Ijaz, his father and one of Ijaz’s colleagues, Yasif Shehzad who corroborated his story. He said he had also heard Muhammad Ashfaq’s side of the story but had not yet spoken to Muhammad Ashiq. He said he would confer with the chief architect on whether he should record Ashiq’s statement or not.

He said he had told Ijaz that he should have approached his pastor for advice if his colleagues had said something derogatory against Christianity or the police if his colleagues had threatened him. He didn’t need to bring the matter to the department, he said. “However I will inform the chief architect about Nauman’s version... he will decide the matter.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2015.