ICC Note:
Heading into 2014, Pakistan is a country in crisis. Economic woes, Islamic extremists, widespread government corruption and human right abuses continue to plague the South Asian country. Many politicians continue to focus their political energies on the issue of U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil. Maybe it is time Pakistan’s politicians and general society focus less on the issue of drones and more on the internal conflicts that claim more lives. Among these internal issues, religious extremism and violence has continued to cause millions in Pakistan to suffer. Pakistani Christians, among other religious minorities, are forced to face church bombings, kidnappings, forced marriage, forced conversion and other forms of brutal violence due to their religious identity. Unfortunately, no politicians have truly taken on the plight of Christians or Pakistan’s other religious minorities. Maybe 2014 is the year these issues should be brought to the front of Pakistan’s politics?
1/13/2014 Pakistan (New America Media) – US drone strikes have caused an outrage in Pakistan where thousands of young impressionable Pakistanis have taken to the streets. Until last week, the demonstrators had disrupted Nato supplies travelling through Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to register their protest.
With political gains and expediencies involved, Pakistan’s foremost politicians have publicly canvassed the drone strikes as a violation of national sovereignty and honor. Public opinion has been diverted from the more organic and distressing issue of internal human rights abuses against Pakistan’s ethnic and religious minorities to the populist and emotional one of drone strikes.
While civilian casualties, as a result of these external strikes, are a reality, it is important for the people of Pakistan to also protest and denounce abuses that are a result of internal Pakistani policies and are well within the control of the state. However, political manipulation and lack of national awareness and public empathy have so far ensured that these abuses continue unchecked.
The masses of Pakistan are ideally placed to influence and pressure the government into stopping these human rights abuses against the country’s ethnic and religious minorities. Raising their voices against the four major issues highlighted below will safeguard their national unity, security and welfare.
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4) Pakistanis should protect the rights and lives of religious minorities
Prominent Shia doctors, lawyers, clergy and scholars continue to lose their lives to targeted acts of violence on a frequent basis. Shia neighborhoods and places of worships remain a priority target for extremist organizations functioning across Pakistan. Hundreds of Hazara Shias have been killed in bomb blasts and other targeted violence.
Another ostracized community, the Ahmedis, declared non-Muslims by the state’s amended constitution, live in the dark shadow of secrecy and fear. They know that their identity, if disclosed, endangers not just their lives but also restricts access to jobs, education, housing, etc.
Similarly, unfortunate for Pakistani Christians, this September, a church bombing in Peshawar killed 85 people, including women and children. Today, hundreds of Christians are languishing in jails across Pakistan, facing charges of blasphemy.
Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy law, which carries a possible death penalty, for anyone accused of insulting or criticizing Islam, its scriptures or its last Prophet. The law has become a convenient tool to settle personal scores against vulnerable citizens.
The dwindling Hindu population is not any safer. Hindu girls in Sindh are frequently abducted by extremist groups and forced to convert and marry into Muslim families. With religious intolerance and sectarian violence growing out-of-control, it is hard to figure out what is worse in this state: To be a non-Muslim or to be the wrong kind of Muslim.
Conclusion
Despite such horrific conditions faced by the Baloch, tribal Pashtuns and religious minorities, politicians have led zero protests in solidarity with their fellow citizens.
There is a deafening silence and even a defensive denial by some leaders on the issue of internal support for the Taliban as well as abuse of Baloch, Pashtun and religious minorities. If anything, those often loudest about US drones have led the charge to oppose efforts to improve the conditions of Pakistan’s minorities.
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