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International Religious Freedom confronts Pakistan over persecution of Ahmadiyyas

International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit which was organized in Washington confronted Pakistan on the global platform over the persecution of the Ahmadiyya community in the country.

The IRF Summit was organized from June 28-30, 2022 and it raised the issue of ruthless persecution of Ahmadiyya Muslims, a minority community in Pakistan, reported JustEarth news.

The summit was convened by former US Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Dr Katina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

The IRF Summit is an annual gathering of international freedom advocates and activists from around the world.

It highlights threats to freedom of religion and belief by providing communities a platform to speak about the challenges to their fundamental freedom of faith.The event was utilized by the ‘Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA’ to draw global attention to the plight of this sect in Pakistan, a country which has officially labelled its members as non-Muslims, reported JustEarth news.Pakistan is more phobic of the Ahmadiyya sect and its interpretation of Islam than most other nations where the community is present.Ahmadis number about 4 million in Pakistan, but the community has been forbidden to call itself Muslim since 1974 by the Pakistani Constitution which considers them “infidels”.

Resultantly, Ahmadis are not even allowed to call their houses of prayer “mosques,” while basic religious practices associated with Islam are forbidden for them.

Recently, three members of the Ahmadiyya community were arrested for sacrificing animals on Eid-al-Adha in Pakistan.

The Ahmadi community faces persecution in Pakistan in the form of hate crimes and mob violence and their schools, mosques and public events like wedding parties are usual targets.

These incidents are further aided by institutional apathy which prevents any action against the attackers, reported JustEarth news.They remain the most vulnerable prey of Pakistan’s violent blasphemy laws, with at least 13 Ahmadis killed and 40 wounded since 2017 owing to their identity.In 2010, twin mosque terror raids in Lahore killed at least 94 Ahmadis. In May 2022, a 36-year-old Ahmadi man was stabbed to death by a member of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a Sunni militant body that is proscribed, but in talks with the government. Earlier this year, a 70-year-old Ahmadi man who was on trial for blasphemy died in Bahawalpur Jail due to mistreatment despite his ill health. The members of the Ahmadi community are not spared persecution even in their death as there are an increasing number of cases of their graves being dug up and desecrated. Most of these mutilations are caused by local administrations who blame Ahmadiyyas only for using Islamic symbols, reported JustEarth news.In the latest case, on July 6, 2022, local police and some extremist elements raided two graveyards in the Talwandi Khajurwali district of Gujranwala.According to Pakistani media, it was the fourth case of desecration of graves in 2022. Earlier in February this year, Police reportedly destroyed about 50 tombstones in an Ahmadiyya cemetery in the Hafizabad district of Punjab.

Overall, around 150 graves of Ahmadiyyas have been desecrated in the last year. Despite some local human rights groups condemning these acts, the state institutions prefer to remain silent and complicit.

IRF Summit is not the only global institution which has highlighted the Ahmadi plight in Pakistan. In recent years, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) have demanded the Pak authorities take legal action against those responsible for threats and violence against Ahmadis. Other international experts highlight that Pakistani laws against the Ahmadiyya community violate Pakistan’s international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Pakistan ratified in 2010.

These include the rights to freedom of conscience, religion, expression, and association, and to profess and practise one’s own religion. (ANI)

https://theprint.in/world/international-religious-freedom-confronts-pakistan-over-persecution-of-ahmadiyyas/1036144/

Editorial: Action Needed to Protect Pakistan’s Christians From “Blasphemy” Allegations

Another Christian in Pakistan has been handed a death sentence for alleged “blasphemy” against Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

This latest case is particularly troubling, as Ashfaq Masih made no reference to Muhammad or to the Islamic religion. Ashfaq’s alleged crime was to say that he believes Jesus Christ to be the only true prophet.From an Islamic perspective, this statement can be considered blasphemous because it denies by implication that Muhammad is a true prophet.Last month two brothers, both Christians, Qasir and Amoon Ayub, saw their death sentence for “blasphemy” upheld by an appeal court in Rawalpindi.

In January this year Zafar Bhatti, a Christian appealing against a sentence of life imprisonment for “blasphemy”, received a death sentence.

In each of these cases, Christians have been the victims of spurious accusations from Muslim neighbors.

Although the Pakistan government is making progress in supporting the rights of Christians and other minorities, not enough has been done to address this issue.

One suggestion for the modification of the “blasphemy” laws is the adoption of the sharia (Islamic law) principle of qazaf. Used in relation to accusations of adultery (zina), the qazaf principle is that false accusations should be punished almost as severely as the crime itself.

Adoption of this principle in relation to “blasphemy” would mean that false accusations could result in fines or imprisonment.

If taken seriously, this principle could work to reduce the number of malicious accusations made against Christians and others.

https://www.barnabasfund.org/us/news/editorial-action-needed-to-protect-pakistan-s-christians-from-blasphemy/

#Pakistan - The Election Commission rules that the PTI received prohibited funding from foreign donors - A long-awaited verdict

 Waqar Gillani

I

n the case of prohibited fundraising by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared that the party received prohibited and foreign funding from several countries.

The three-member ECP bench, in a unanimous verdict, stated that the PTI “knowingly and willfully” received funding from various foreign companies, including Wootton Cricket Limited, and that the party was a “willing recipient” of prohibited funds amounting to $2,121,500. It also received donations from companies based in the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and others. The party also benefitted from donations by many foreigners in “violation of the law”.

According to the verdict, the PTI had owned only eight accounts before the commission. “The data obtained from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reveals that all the 13 accounts disowned by the PTI were opened and operated by senior PTI management and leadership at [the] central and provincial levels.”

The commission maintained that the party also failed to mention accounts that were being operated by the party’s senior leadership. Non-disclosure and concealment of 16 bank accounts by the PTI is a “serious lapse” on part of the PTI leadership and a violation of Article 17(3) of the Constitution, which says “Every political party shall account for the source of its funds in accordance with the law.”

The PTI chairman submitted Form-I for five years (between 2008 and 2013) which was found to be “grossly inaccurate on the basis of the financial statements obtained by this commission from the SBP and other material available on record”. “Therefore, the matter falls within the ambit of Article 6(3) of Political Parties Order 2002 (PPO). Hence, the commission directs that a notice may be issued to the respondent party in terms of Rule 6 of the PPO as to why the aforementioned prohibited funds may not be confiscated. The office is also directed to initiate any other action under the law in light of this order of the commission, including forwarding the case to the federal government,” the verdict reads.

The PTI leadership, reacting to the verdict, alleged that the ECP was biased against it. “The verdict is not based on truth and correct information which was provided by the party to the commission but neglected,” they said.

PTI leader Akbar S Babar had filed the petition before the ECP in November 2014, during the 2014 sit-in. “We were fighting against a mountain. This was a battle of truth versus might and we are victorious,” Babar, the complainant in the case stated. He said the case was an attempt to bring a pivotal change so that political parties operate under the law. He said the ECP’s decision was a step towards uprooting what he called the PTI “fascism”.

Senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry claimed that all party accounts were legal. He said some subsidiary accounts were opened under party leaders’ names ahead of elections and were declared too.

On Twitter, a PTI supporter identified herself as Beenish Faridi. She said she had been mentioned in the verdict as a ‘foreign’ donor. Calling the ECP verdict “outrageous”, she claimed to have donated to the party ahead of the 2013 elections using PTI’s online official account. “Now I have seen my name in the list of ‘foreign donors’. I am a Pakistani living in the UK,” she said.

The PTI has moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the verdict and the Supreme Judicial Council against Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja. Some legal experts say that there can be consequences for the party and its chairman as a result of this verdict and the show-cause notice issued by the ECP.

Article 6(3) of the PPO states: “Any contribution made, directly or indirectly, by any foreign government, multinational or domestically incorporated public or private company, firm, trade or professional association shall be prohibited and the parties may accept contributions and donations only from individuals.” They also observe that, in the long run, there could be grounds for reforming the laws relevant to political parties.

“The verdict can have serious consequences for the PTI. The situation provides an opportunity to the country’s political leadership to introduce legal reforms,” senior lawyer Irfan Qadir says.

Some analysts, however, say it is a temporary measure to put pressure on the PTI.

Analyst Zahid Hussain says the ECP verdict may open a Pandora’s boxes, with repercussions far beyond Pakistan. “The PTI’s rival parties, which are in power, will use this verdict as a good opportunity to step up their political attacks against Imran Khan and his party. There is no sign that the verdict will affect Imran Khan’s political support base. But the episode raises questions about his integrity and adherence to the law and democratic values, which he never stops talking about,” he says.

Last week, the PTI staged a protest demonstration in Islamabad against the government and the ECP. To forestall violence, the administration sealed the Red Zone.

The PTI says it intends to challenge this verdict in courts. The ruling alliance has apparently decided to move the Supreme Court for the disqualification of Imran Khan.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/979908-a-long-awaited-verdict

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#Pakistan - OUSTED PM's Political stunt

OUSTED PM Imran Khan is attempting to make a very expensive point with his decision to contest all nine National Assembly seats going up for by-election on Sept 25. To recap, these nine general seats (as well as two reserved seats for women) were formally vacated after the controversial acceptance of the resignations of only 11 PTI MNAs recently by the National Assembly Speaker.

While the NA Speaker gave no rationale for his decision, the move seemed aimed at deflating some of the pressure for early elections that had been created by the en masse resignation of over 100 PTI lawmakers in April.

However, the PTI chief has now come up with a counter-strategy: pit himself in all nine by-elections announced and, in case he wins one or more seats, nullify the entire exercise by ensuring that by-elections have to be held on the same seats again and again. Mr Khan has thereby turned the by-election into a personal referendum. Victory along the lines of the July 17 by-polls in Punjab would give his narrative strong validation and a chance to thumb his nose at critics.However, Mr Khan has no real interest in actually representing his voters in parliament at the moment. Therefore, this seems like an unnecessary attempt to stay relevant at the expense of the state exchequer. One also wonders what his strategy would be if by-elections were to be announced on all the seats vacated: would Mr Khan nominate himself as the PTI’s sole candidate on all 100 or so seats? Quite the farce that would be.

Meanwhile, the animus between the PTI chairman and the chief election commissioner that has been made central to the party’s discourse is also worth a review. It seems quite hypocritical considering that Mr Khan accepts that he endorsed Sikandar Sultan Raja’s appointment, even if at the advice of the establishment. Yet, regardless of who made what recommendations, as a leader, he must take full responsibility for his decision. Considering how many years his party spent gloating and stressing the same point when the then opposition had protested against the heavy-handedness of former NAB chief Javed Iqbal, it does not behove Mr Khan to now cry foul.

By inviting supporters to take part in an attempt to also sabotage the Election Commission’s mandate, he is setting a dangerous precedent. The exercise, if it succeeds, may turn people even more distrustful of and hostile to the electoral process. The move may drive home the point that the PTI is willing to go to any lengths to force a general election, but it is ultimately a destructive endeavour that will waste public resources and undermine the spirit of the democratic system. The PTI chief has already been propagating his political message through rallies and jalsas; why can’t he continue to seek public validation through such events?

https://www.dawn.com/news/1703697/political-stunt