PHRG in Pakistan

Lionel Blackman in Rabwah Pakistan home of the majority of Amhadis in the country.

Lionel Blackman joined the Parliamentary Human Rights Group Enquiry into Discrimination Against Religious Minorities in Pakistan this February. Below is a personal account. For the official summary of the delegation CLICK HERE

Karachi is now the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 18 million people. You can picture the overcrowded cities of Mumbai and Kolkata on the sub-continent and their lines of mass poverty, streets of heat and dust, yet this city despite its ascendancy in the demographic table is relatively calm and orderly.

Five star hotels are targets for terrorists and the Marriott is surrounded by anti-tank defences, rifle bearing guards, explosives sniffing dogs and bomb detection equipment. The hotel is next to the US consulate and the sense of danger is heightened. The day after we left the CIA and PIS caught the Taliban second in command in this city.

From my seventh floor room I look down on the cathedral like Freer building that is now a library frequented by the few who would run the gauntlet of its grassy grounds. The only humans to be seen below are black capped guards. The stillness the extremist bomb threat brings to this quarter is more eerie with the vultures circling ahead.

We depart in convoy with armed police, sirens and blue flashing lights to the Amhadiyya community represented in Karachi. Founded in 1895 by a messiah predicted in Islam. The followers of Hazrat Ahmad migrated 150 miles to the new nation of Pakistan upon the partition of India in 1947. They purchased 1000 acres of land and founded the town of Rabwah. They were safe in Jinnah’s homeland for muslims. The guiding principle of the faith is the rejection of all jihadism.

An estimated 50% of the Pakistani male population is illiterate and 80% of the people follow the Sunni Muslim sect. Attending Friday prayers is commonplace for many. The mullahs have great influence. An exclusive Islam of the Sunni sect has grown since the nation’s creation and strengthened during periods of western support of jihadists against the Soviets and the rule of General Zia al Haq (1977 - 1988). Today the western invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan fan the flames of Islamic radicalism.

However, it was as early as 1974 that President Zulfikar Bhutto approved an amendment to the constitution known as the blasphemy law that declared Amhadiyyas to be non-muslims. Zia al Haq promulgated ordinances that tightened the law and made it impossible for Amhadiyyas to openly practice their faith. Theologically the contention is the Sunni belief that Mohammed was the final prophet of Allah and thus Nazrat Ahmad is false.

So this is why we are here: To listen to their stories of discrimination and death.

We sit and drink tea and eat dry biscuits. I tap away at the lap top and record with the Dictaphone. The tortured men move us with their testimonies. The ugly face of Pakistan faces us today and for the rest of the days ahead.

The next day we have two meetings with different sets of leaders of the Shia sect. Again we are closely guarded throughout our zig-zagging around the city. The Shias are 20% of the population and as such are not regarded officially as a minority yet are coming under increasing attack. A complaint is they do not get jobs in government or the police. In January this year their procession is bombed and the mayor and provincial ministers of the secular MQM party leading in solidarity narrowly escape. The police melted away and conspiracy theories multiply. The Shias we meet condemn jihadism and squarely blame Arabian sources for financing the Taliban and other extremists.

The dynamic young Mayor of Karachi greets us in his heavily fortified Council headquarters and proudly showcases his city wide cctv surveillance control centre. We have been escorted all day by a young Sindh Province Minister for Information Technology. He worked on the social services computers of the London Borough of Barking. I allow myself a little optimism for Pakistan if young forward looking internet savvy politicians and administrators make progress.

After the flight to Faisalabad we meet the Roman Catholic Archbishop. The problem is again the extremists fired up by the mullahs and the madrassas churning out indoctrinated young men. Financed from arab lands or the opium trade of Afghani taliban?

The next day we take the bumpy road to Rabwah – renamed, against the wishes of its population, Chenab Nagar. The new name refers to the wide but shallow river that we cross on a series of bridges in the dry and red rocked landscape. An Amhadiyya is not prepared to declare that he is not muslim on registration as an elector. He faces prosecution under the infamous blasphemy law if he declares that he is muslim. Consequently amhadiyyas are disenfranchised and their town council has no one representing them.

We have a wide ranging discussion with the leaders here and depressingly it seems nothing can be done. Every avenue of action that the UK might explore is a dead end. Linking aid to human rights? No chance – “We need a stable Pakistan to fight the Taliban.” Though the EU might create linkage.

We are taken on a tour of the town and the mosques without minarets – a consequence of the intolerance. The nationalised amhadiyya built schools the government refuses to return and allows to fall into ruin. Then another showcase. The heart hospital built and funded by the worldwide amhadiyya community; demonstrating the greater contribution to Pakistan from the amhadiyyas that the law and extremists are denying the country.

Four young boys are accused of writing Mohammed in a mosque toilet on the basis they are amhadiyyas as true muslims wouldn’t do this. Their trial is a prolonged affair with many adjournments between witnesses – none of whom saw them do it. It took five months to get them bail from the High Court – no one wants to know – no one wants to support amhadiyyas in the legal system.

A lone amhadiyya residing in a village is accused of preaching Islam. The mob surround his wife and children who stayed in his house until his brother brings him from hiding to the police station. The process ends with a 25 year sentence.

We learn during this visit that police, prosecutors and judges cannot act independently. In the country bribery ensures baseless accusations lead to trials and in the cities fear of the radical mob’s violence thwarts justice. The best lawyers can do in an amhadiyya blasphemy case is to delay hoping the heat will be taken out and the rule of law prevail.

The Punjab Governor’s residence is Mughol splendour with a British India atmosphere. Like his counterpart in Sindh the opulence of his house does nothing to remove his greyness of complexion and sadness of countenance. Or is it just the regal attitude that is expected in such surroundings – with a full retinue of servants, bearers, guards and advisers?

He readily admits many of the failings we have been told of and shrugs his shoulders and blames the lower orders. The blasphemy law is a hot potato and he is against it but the muslim league parties remain in support and so Parliament won’t deal with it. During our meeting he is distracted by the rejection of the nomination papers for his party’s (PPP) candidate for a parliamentary by-election and takes many calls trying to sort it out. It’s all about who you know here.

Off to the Amhadiyyas of Lahore who are not to be confused with the Lahori Amhadiyyas. The latter settled here in 1914 before partition following a schism. They do not think the faith needs a Khalif. The rest do and His Holiness is safely tucked away in the London Mosque in Southfields. We are meeting the amhadiyyas who happen to live in Lahore.

More murders and police inaction unfold in the stories recounted by this community and witnesses. What to do? Where to begin? Apart from the obvious repeal of the law what about reforming the prosecution in the meantime? Real independence and a Code of Conduct? All very difficult when the power is in the hands of some mullahs and the violence they can control. So is a solution the state run education service with enforced schooling to eradicate illiteracy and reverse the tide of brain washed radicals?

Lionel Blackman