The document discusses the oppression of minorities in Pakistan. It notes that since Pakistan's inception, successive regimes have violated the rights of minorities as enshrined in international standards. Minorities like Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis and Shias have faced discrimination, violence and forced conversions. The root cause is a lack of enlightened leadership and the influence of extremist Islamic groups on politicians seeking power. However, liberal forces now have an opportunity in the upcoming elections to promote progressive values of democracy, pluralism and human rights by appealing to Pakistan's original syncretic traditions and sidelining corrupt political elements.

1. Declaration on the Rights of Persons
Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious
or Linguistic Minorities; the Council of
Europe’s Framework Convention on the
Protection of National Minorities; the
Oslo Recommendations Regarding the
Linguistic Rights of National Minorities;
The Hague Recommendations regarding
the Education Rights of National
Minorities; and the Lund
Recommendations on the Effective
Participation of National Minorities in
Public Life.
In view of their ordeals many citizens
belonging to the minorities in Pakistan
have either resorted to exodus to foreign
lands or religious conversion. This has
altered the country’s religious
demography beyond recognition . In the
undivided British India’s Pakistan
Muslims, who constituted 70 per cent
then, included Sunnis, Shias, Ahmadis
and others in different schools of Islam.
Non-Muslims were 30 per cent . They
included Hindus, Sikhs, Christians,
Bahai's, Parsis and all others outside Islam.
Hindus accounted for 24 per cent in
Pakistan then. In Karachi they were even a
majority 51 per cent.
of the ordeals they face for being
minorities in their respective lands .
According to a study , in Mauritania
some 600,000 black Africans , 20 per cent
ofthecountry’spopulation,arestillslaves.
Mauritania uses Sharia to a racist system
and people are taught in religious schools
that slaves are the masters’ properties to
be passed along as inheritance and
women slaves must submit their bodies to
their masters.
The state of Pakistan happens to
conform to this pattern of behaviour only.
Volumes have already been written to
show that ever since Pakistan came into
existence, it has been one of the worst
oppressors of humanity. Its minorities --
Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, the Baha’is,
Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Ahmadis, Shias
and Mohajirs -- non Muslims and non-
Sunni Muslims both – have suffered most.
According to authentic studies, the
successive regimes in Islamabad have
thrown to the winds the minority rights
standards enshrined in the UN
Pakistan---- a land of its finest syncretistic traditions since ancient times ---- is in a bad
shape today. The state that came into existence to represent it in 1947 has been one
of the worst oppressors of its own citizens. Its treatment of minorities is still worse.
The country's parochial rulers and allies have been the root cause of this malaise .
Genuinely liberal and progressives forces must invoke the land’s original values and
sideline the political crooks in the system . The upcoming parliamentary election offers them the
best opportunity to push forward their progressive agenda, contends Jagdish N Singh
P
hilosophers, political scientists
and statesmen have defined the
modern state as a positive entity
fostering the multi-faceted
development of all its citizens . One ,
however, finds few states in the modern
world still care for their citizens. Most of
them continue to deny their citizens even
the essential freedoms of life. Their
treatment of minorities is still worse. Ask
non-Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia; Shias and
Kurds in Turkey ; Azeris, Kurds, Balouch,
Ahwazi Arabs, Lurs, the Jews, the Baha’is
and Zoroastrians in Iran; Christians in
Iraq, Indonesia, the Gaza Strip, Egypt,
Sudan and Nigeria; Kurds in Syria; the
Berber/Amazigh peoples in Morocco and
Algeria; Hindus in Bangladesh and India’s
Kashmir; Tibetans in China ; Tamils in Sri
Lanka; Catholics in Northern Ireland;
Basques in Spain; , Corsicans in France;
Muslims in the Philippines ; Albanians in
Macedonia or Yugoslavia ; Abkhazis in
Georgia; black Africans in Mauritania ;
and so on. And all of them would tell you
Timetosidelinepoliticalcrooks
Minorities in PakistanMay 2013 Power Politics
PAGE-13
Shias facing genocide in Pakistan today
Ahmadis protest against discrimination
History calling progressives_brhma.qxd 4/25/2013 3:30 PM Page 2

2. population 6.6 per cent ). In its population
of 17, 56, 46,000, Sunnis constitute 77 per
cent and Shias 20 per cent.
Various reports and studies confirm
the worsening plight of the minorities in
Pakistan today . One could have a look at
the reports of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, the U S
Commission on Freedom, the Pakistan
Human Rights Commission, the Jinnah
Institute and the Society for the
ProtectionsoftheRightsofChild.Someof
the observations of the Pakistan Supreme
Court, too, have confirmed the truth in
the matter. Such studies have also
suggested measures to address the on-
going rights violations in the country. But
Islamabad has cared a fig.
Historic diagnosis
The root cause of the Pakistani
predicament has been the lack of
enlightened political leadership in the
country . After about a decade of Pakistan
coming into existence the great Indian
nationalist leader, freedom fighter and
then Education Minister Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad wrote : “ Pakistan was the
creation of the Muslim League ..The
League had hardly any members who had
fought for the independence of the
country. They had neither made any
sacrifice nor gone through the discipline
of a struggle. They were either retired
On Independence Pakistan came to
have Muslims 86 per cent and non-
Muslims 14 per cent , albeit concentrated
mainly in East Bengal. In Pakistan today
non-Muslims --Hindus, Christians and
others -- are just about three per cent
(Hindus 1.6 per cent; Hindus in Sindh
PAGE-14
Minorities in Pakistan May 2013 Power Politics
A recent Christian demonstration against torching of their homes in Lahore.
Hindu girl Rinkle Kumari : a face of
forcible conversion
The annual report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan lays out just how low we have
descended as a nation. There are a number of unenviable records we hold, from the number of
journalists killed to having more deaths by breast cancer than any other country in the region. Yet,
if there is one aspect of the report which stands out, it is the deplorable way that minorities have
been treated in the country. The report reveals that in 2012 alone 1,000 Hazara Shias were killed in
Quetta ,20 Ahmadis in religious violence and six churches burned down in Karachi. The report is
necessary reading for those who are in denial about the state of the country today. In the endless
debate over whether Pakistan is a failed state, there is one point that is never made. We may or may
not be a failed state but this is a state that has failed its citizens. Were it not for organisations like
the HRCP, the suffering of our fellow countrymen may never have been heard--
The Express Tribune, April 8, 2013.
A Hazara protest in Oslo
The state has failed its citizens
History calling progressives_brhma.qxd 4/25/2013 3:30 PM Page 3

3. all its inhabitants. The tradition of the
progressives has to be adhered to and
advanced in the interest of humanity.
Famous Austro-British philosopher Karl
Popper aptly observed :
“ If we think history progresses , or that
we are bound to progress, we commit the
same mistake as those who believe that
history has a meaning that can be
discovered in it and need not be given to
it. For to progress is to move towards
some kind of end, towards an end which
exists for us as human beings. 'History'
cannot do that; only we, the human
individuals, can do it; we can do it by
defending and strengthening those
democratic institutions upon which
freedom, and with it progress, depends.
And we shall do it much better as we
become more fully aware of the fact that
progress rests with us, with our
watchfulness, with our efforts, with the
clarity of our conception of our ends, and
with the realism of their choice. Instead of
posing as prophets, we must be the
makers of our fate. We must learn to do
things as well as we can, and to look out
for our mistakes. "
Recently,famoushumanrightslawyerand
activist Asma Jahangir has suggested that
the people and the media could help put
human rights issues on the election
agenda. The liberals could act accordingly.
Fortunabely , time is still on their side. The
Islamists like Wahabism ---the Deoband
seminary, Tablighi Jamaat, Ahle Hadith
and the Jamaat-e-Islami have little social
base in the country. Pakistan has the Ahle
Sunnat wal Jamaat represented by the
Barelvi creed with the largest following.
The masses in Pakistan have had a strong
syncretistic tradition derived from the
curious amalgamation of Islam and the
region’s indigenous religions. The
progressives --- including in the media,
academics and legal fraternity--- could
activate and use this social base in
replacing theirparochialrulersandvested
interests with such elements as would be
genuinely committed to democracy,
pluralism and human rights.
Needless to add, history does not
move forward automatically. Liberal,
progressive forces have consistently
worked hard in its positive evolution. In
their long journey --- beginning with
Magna Carta and travelling through
Renaissance and Reformation in Europe,
the War of Independence in America, the
French Revolution and various freedom
struggles in Afro- Asian and Latin
American nations--- they have come to
define the modern state as the custodian
and defender of the rights and liberties of
PAGE-15
Minorities in PakistanMay 2013 Power Politics
officials or men who had been brought
into public life under British patronage.
The result was when the new state was
formed, power came into the hands of
people who had no record service or
sacrifice. Many of the rulers of the new
state were selfish people who had come
into public life only for the sake of
personal interest. A majority of the
leaders of the new state came from UP,
Bihar and Bombay . In most cases they
could not even speak the language of the
areas which now formed Pakistan. There
was a gulf between the rulers and the
ruled in the new State .”
Things have changed little since then.
As a result of this continuing leadership
crisis, a notorious Deobandi Sunni stream
of the puritanical Wahabi-Salafi order,
equipped with a distorted version of
Islam, has come to expand its social base
in Pakistan . In order to capture or retain
political power the politicians of all hues –
including its ambitious Army, have sought
to cultivate or keep in good humour this
Islamist social base by accommodating its
agenda at the cost of the interests of all
other segments of Pakistani society.
Itishightimeliberal,progressiveforces
in Pakistan intervene and sideline the
political crooks in the system. The current
wave for democracy in Pakistan and its
upcoming parliamentary elections offer
the liberals the best opportunity to push
forward their progressive agenda.
Human rights activist Asma
Jahangir: the people and the
media must come forward and
define the new election agenda.
Pakistan has the Ahle
Sunnat wal Jamaat
represented by the Barelvi
creed with the largest
following. The masses in
Pakistan have had a strong
syncretistic tradition derived
from the curious
amalgamation of Islam and
the region’s indigenous
religions. The progressives --
- including in the media,
academics and legal
fraternity--- could activate
and use this social base in
replacing their parochial
rulers and vested interests
with such elements as would
be genuinely committed to
democracy and pluralism in
the country.
The legendary freedom fighter
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad rightly
dignosed that rulers of Pakistan were
selfish. Will the liberals in Pakistan
change them now?
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