'Religious Apartheid In Pakistan'

Nazir S Bhatti is founder-president of the Pakistan Christian Congress, a Christian political party, andeditor of the Pakistan Christian Post. He now lives in exile in New York. He is a leading spokespersonfor minority rights in Pakistan, where he has played an important role in initiating dialogue between Muslimsand Christians. He spoke to Yoginder Sikand on issues related to the position of religious minorities in hiscountry. Excerpts:

What has been the impact of Islamist movements, both moderate as well as militant, on the status ofChristians and Christian Muslim relations in Pakistan?

Relations between different communities in Pakistan were fairly harmonious before the Objectives Resolutionwas adopted as a preamble to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (1973), seeking to implementIslamic laws in the country within the next twenty years.

The fourth amendment in the Constitution to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims community was the first stepwhich led to a process of victimisation of the various religious minorities in Pakistan. Christian-Muslimrelations sharply deteriorated with the implementation of so-called Islamic laws by the Zia-ul Haq militarygovernment. The Jama'at-i-Islami played a key role behind this, and saw it as a means to garner power foritself. And so, today, we have a situation of a sort of religious apartheid in Pakistan.

What efforts are being made in Pakistan by both the Christian Church as well as Muslim groups todialogue with people of other faiths?

Churches and the Christian clergy in Pakistan have been under particular pressure since 1972, when thegovernment nationalized the missionary schools, colleges and hospitals in the country. This led the Church toturn inwards and it stayed away from inter-faith dialogue in any meaningful sense.

After the implementation of the blasphemy laws in 1985, the church leadership in Rome suggested to thelocal clergy to engage in inter-faith dialogue work in order to prevent Christians being victimized underthese laws. Yet, the clergy did not respond to the situation as it should have.

The Pakistan Christian Congress was the first party in Pakistan to organize public seminars at Karachi,Lahore and Islamabad, to which it invited the leaders of Muslim groups, such as Jama'at-i-Islami, Jami'at-ulUlama-i-Pakistan and the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh Jafaria to discuss the situation and promote inter-communalharmony.

Recently, the Pakistan Awami Tehrik has taken a bold step by forming a Muslim-Christian DialogueCommission, and has even invited Christian religious leaders to offer their prayers at a mosque in Lahore.

However, after the recent attacks by militant groups on churches in Islamabad and Bahawalpur, in whichseveral Christians were killed, it seems that the Church leadership has dampened its enthusiasm for dialogue.Extremist Muslim groups have now resorted to terrorism, and the churches feel that there is no point in tryingto dialogue with them.

How are the relations between Christians and other minority communities in Pakistan? Has the PakistaniChurch attempted to dialogue with them as well?

The Sunni Muslims form the majority of the population of Pakistan.

The major non-Sunni religious groups in the country include the Ahmadis, the Shi'as, the Isma'ilis, theHindus and the Christians.

After the fourth amendment to the Pakistani Constitution, many Ahmadis decided to leave Pakistan, and thecommunity shifted their religious headquarters from Pakistan to West Africa and to Britain, rather than openlyand actively struggle for their rights within Pakistan.

The Shi'as, who are the largest community in Pakistan after the Sunnis, have increasingly become targets ofSunni militants. Many Shi'as have been killed in recent years and their holy places attacked.

The Hindus in Pakistan live almost entirely in Sind, and have, by and large, remained relatively free frompersecution, at least as compared to the Christians and the Ahmadis. Unfortunately, despite the worseningconditions of the minorities in Pakistan, there is no forum to unite them to jointly struggle for theirrights.

Since the problems of the religious minorities in Pakistan are closely linked to the oppression ofminorities in other countries in South Asia, particularly India, I think that a united platform of minoritiesin South Asia as a whole is indispensable in order to promote dialogue and better understanding betweendifferent groups in Pakistan.