Ahmadis to boycott Pakistan polls over not treating as Muslims

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

At least 200,000 members of Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi community will be boycotting next month’s election in protest of their treatment by the authorities, a spokesman said. “We have been boycotting the election process since 1985 when Ahmadi voters were put in the list of religious minorities,” Jamaat-e-Ahmadiya spokesman Saleemuddin said. He said the community wanted its voters to be included in the joint electorate system. “We will stay away from the election and boycott the polls to register our protest,” he said. Pakistan goes to the polls on May 11 for a general election that should see the first democratic transition from one civilian government to another after the completion of a five-year mandate. Election registration forms require voters to give their religion and address and Ahmadis refuse to complete them for fear of being attacked. Their graveyards are often targeted and in 2010 nearly 100 people were killed in Lahore after militants stormed two Ahmadi prayer halls.