Netherlands Hears Petition To Grant Pakistani Christians Special Status

This week members of the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) were in the Netherlands to ask for enhancing attempts to guard persecuted Christians in Pakistan and make it gentler for them to obtain asylum in the country. BPCA apprehended a conference in cooperation with the Middle East Forum for Development on the human rights situation of minorities in Pakistan. MP Pieter Omzigtz of the Christian Democrats Party chaired the conference and attendants included Michiel Servaes of the Labour Party and Joël Voordewind of the Christian Union, which last year appealed to the Dutch government to offer Pakistani Christians and Ahmadis special status because of the persecution they are experiencing. On Tuesday, while the conference, genocide expert Professor Desmond Fernandes advised that the condition of minorities in Pakistan was getting shoddier. Fernandes is further more concerned after the current ruling by Pakistan’s Federal Sharia Court, which spell out that life imprisonment does not be enough as a punishment for blasphemers and that just the death punishment should be permitted.

“This suggests that there are specific directions and orders from the highest level, suggesting that the situation is just going to increase in terms of deterioration of circumstances for Christians and certainly for a lot of others,” he said.

Christians account for less than 2 per cent of the Pakistani inhabitants and are consistently hurried for their faith. Human rights group culpability much of the persecution on the blasphemy laws, which carries death penalty. Even though no death sentence against a Christian has ever been carried out, the plea process can take years, during which time the accused residue behind bars. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, has been imprisoned for the last three years in anticipation of the outcome of a petition against her death sentence for blasphemy charges. Persecution against Christians includes rape, murder and violent attacks. A suicide bombing at a church in Peshawar last year killed several Christians. The severity of the persecution has pushed many Pakistani Christians to seek refuge in other countries. - See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/netherlands-hears-petition-to-grant-pakistani-christians-special-status/#sthash.mytwl9MX.dpuf