It was on 14 August 1947 that Pakistan gained its independence. Founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah sealed it when he told the Pakistani Constituent Assembly:

You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State… We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.

Sixty-three years after that immortal speech politicians are yet to agree on the kind of freedom Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) meant. Religious minorities can tell you all too well that his vision is yet to be fulfilled. Pakistan has still never had a single Christian elected to its Parliament. Far worse than that, Christians are being killed by those who would rather see them dead than contemplate recognising them as equals. 

Burned alive

The worst example to date was a shocking attack in August 2009 on Christians in Gojra and Korian, two neighbouring villages in the Punjab province, during which eight Christians were burnt to death, locked inside their own home, and dozens of Christian homes and churches were destroyed. The wounds are still fresh today. The chief suspects continue to roam free and are even threatening deadlier attacks on Christians. Although eighteen Muslims were arrested, they were released last September, before the findings of the Inquiry Commission were published. We are no closer to seeing the perpetrators held accountable for their actions.

The pretext for these attacks was a supposed act of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed committed by residents of Gojra and Korian. Christians are accused of blasphemy with little or no evidence and it is frightening – and often unimaginable to Western Christians – just how quickly these accusations can escalate into brutal violence. The blasphemy laws are continually misused by extremists in order to persecute religious minorities and the death penalty for anyone found guilty of committing blasphemy convinces them that it is their right to kill anyone they suspect of insulting Islam. In 2008, Amnesty International stated in a report that all blasphemy cases known to them ‘appear to be without basis’.

Allegations tend to be accepted without question by members of the criminal justice system who are often intimidated by threats from extremists and mob violence. More distressingly, authorities in Pakistan often do nothing to prevent the filing of unfounded charges and those who make false accusations of blasphemy, or attack or murder Christians, are rarely brought to justice. Some Christians have reported being tortured in prison by members of the authorities and there is strong evidence to suggest that some Christians have even been murdered by members of the police.

Death sentence

Although at least thirty-five Christians have been killed extra-judicially, until recently no Christian had ever received the death sentence from a court. However on 7 November 2010 Asia Bibi (Asiya), a forty-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to death for blasphemy by a session court in the province of Punjab. The judge has totally ruled out false implication and any mitigating circumstances. She was initially arrested in June 2009 and prosecuted under Section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which has a mandatory death penalty. Her family is poor and she was working as a labourer in the fields to support her family. She had an argument with her Muslim colleagues about fetching water in a bowl which was supposed to be used only by Muslims. This led to blasphemy charges being brought against her by those colleagues. Christians in the UK may not be aware of this kind of religious discrimination and hatred against Christians in Pakistan, as these kinds of incidents are seldom reported in the media. Christians can be accused of blasphemy at any time and on extremely spurious grounds, and for this reason they live in constant fear for their lives.

Christian pastor Rashid Emmanuel (pictured above) and his brother Sajjad were shot to death on 19 July 2010 in Faisalabad. The two brothers had left a court hearing acquitted on charges of ‘blasphemy’ when they were gunned down and their police escort wounded by five armed, masked men. The police had concluded that there was no evidence of blasphemy against the men, and that the handwriting on the ‘blasphemous’ leaflets that they were charged with did not match the handwriting of the suspects.

Rubina Bibi of Gujranwala, a twenty-five-year-old mother of three, was accused of blasphemy by her Muslim neighbour. A disagreement turned into a row and led to blasphemy charges under section 295C being made against Rubina. She was arrested in March and would have faced the mandatory death penalty if convicted. Rubina spent almost six months in prison with her eighteen-month-old son Joshua, before being released in August 2010. (Her accuser had offered to settle the matter out of court if she converted to Islam.)

The future

Pakistan has signed and ratified several international treaties including CEDAW (the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women) and it is under obligation to bring its laws into line with these treaties. Pakistan has also signed a third generation agreement with the EU and receives grants from several countries to improve the situation of human rights, education and minorities. However the situation is getting worse.

Religious extremism continues to rise and religious minorities, especially Christians, linked as they are to the West, are living under constant fear. Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams have all expressed their concerns to the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, but without effect to date.  

Murder, the destruction of property and arbitrary detainment – these things will continue so long as the government does nothing to enforce Jinnah’s vision of a Pakistan in which all citizens, whether Muslim, Christian or Hindu, are equal. CLAAS and other organisations continue to campaign for the repeal of the blasphemy laws which are doing so much harm to Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan.

Nasir Saeed is the director of CLAAS (Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement).