By Umar Farooq
- Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
- Members of the Ahmadi community community prayed during Friday prayers in Lahore, July 16, 2010.
Rights groups welcome Pervez Musharraf-era reforms to Pakistan’s electoral
system, which helped put religious minorities on an equal footing with Muslims.
But Ahmadis say they were left out, and some other religious minorities say they
still don’t have adequate representation in Parliament.
“We want to be part of the mainstream, but they [the
government] won’t let us. They are keeping
us out of elections,” a spokesman for Pakistan’s Ahmadi community said.
Muslim
extremists in Pakistan persuaded the government to pass a constitutional
amendment in 1974 declaring Ahmadis non-Muslims. The Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan estimates there are at least one million Ahmadis in the country.
Ahmadis follow the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a late 19th Century
reformer who they consider a prophet. Most orthodox Muslims believe there were
no prophets after Prophet Muhammad.
In 1985, President Zia-ul-Haq altered the country’s
election laws so that when someone registered to vote, they were put into a
group based on their religion. Non-Muslim groups were given a handful of seats
in Parliament and barred from voting in general elections for their districts.
Ahmadis, for example, regardless of where they lived in Pakistan, could only
vote to elect representatives to one of two reserved seats at the national
level.
The rules left minorities without effective representation, said I.A.
Rehman, secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Even in
districts where minorities made up a sizable chunk of the population, they were
never courted by mainstream candidates because they couldn’t vote for
them.
In January 2002, President Musharraf introduced a
“joint electorate,” lifting the requirement to declare religion when registering
to vote. Millions of Hindus and Christians in Pakistan were listed along with
Muslims, and could vote in general elections.
Ahmadis could also vote in general elections, but they
were listed separately to Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Also, any candidate
running for office was still required to sign a document saying Ahmadis were not
Muslims.
“We are glad that in 2002 that system was abolished and
replaced with a joint electorate. Now Muslims and non-Muslims living in the same
street have their names in [a single list] – except for members of the Ahmadi
community,” said Mr. Rehman.
“The Ahmadi community has a right to vote, like all
other citizens, but they are not enrolled in a joint list,” he added.
A spokesman for Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, secretary of the
Election Commission of Pakistan, confirmed that the agency keeps a separate list
of Ahmadis in each district.
The separate listing means that despite the 2002 reforms, most of
Pakistan’s Ahmadis will boycott the upcoming elections on May 11, as they have
been doing since the separate electoral rolls were first introduced. “They
don’t get registered as voters and they don’t take part in elections,” said Mr.
Rehman.
The Ahmadi community spokesman said voting would affirm the government’s
view that he is not a Muslim. “We Ahmadis do not want to disassociate ourselves
from the Prophet Muhammad,” he said.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court took up a petition against the
practice last month, but neither Pakistan’s Attorney General nor the Election
Commission replied to the court’s request to explain why Ahmadis were being
listed separately. The listing could also allow religious extremists to easily
identify Ahmadis in each electoral district, the Ahmadi spokesman said. In 2010,
86 Ahmadis were killed in attacks on worshippers in two mosques in Lahore. Last
year, at least 20 Ahmadis were killed in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s constitution sets aside 10 seats in Parliament for religious
minorities, but they are not filled by direct elections. After general
elections, each political party nominates candidates from minority communities
for the seats based on the party’s proportional representation in the new
Parliament.
“People are chosen for us,” said Zeeshan Joseph of the All Pakistan
Christian League. “When our homes, our churches are destroyed, all we get are
checks. We don’t need checks, we need justice.”
- Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- Houses of Christians torched by a mob in Lahore, March 11, 2013.
Mr.
Joseph says minority representatives are not accountable to the groups they are
supposed to represent, but only to the political party that nominates them. A
handful of minority groups, including the All Pakistan Christian League,
advocate giving minorities in Pakistan a second vote, which they would use to
select parliamentarians to fill the 10 reserved seats.
The right to cast two votes played a decisive role in
the creation of Pakistan. In 1909, British rulers ceded to pressure by Muslims
in India, allowing them a second vote for seats reserved for Muslims. Mr. Joseph
says that without the additional representation in the colonial legislature,
Muslims wouldn’t have been able to demand an independent state of
Pakistan.
“We are sincerely loyal to Pakistan, but we are being
kept from being politically involved. In our churches, the first thing we pray
for is the well-being of our country and of our leaders,” he said.
Umar Farooq is an independent journalist based in Pakistan. He blogs
at umar-farooq.com and tweets @UmarFarooq_
Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.
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