Nearly two months ago, a Hindu woman named Daya Bheel was brutally killed in Pakistan’s Sindh. Krishna Kumari, Senator of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party from Sindh, rushed to her village and confirmed the news of the brutal murder of the woman. Krishna Kumari tweeted that “Daya Bheel, 40-year-old widow brutally murdered and her body was found in very bad condition. Her head was separated from the body and the savages had removed the flesh from the whole head.” Forced conversion of minor Hindu, Sikh, and Christian girls has become an increasingly common phenomenon in Pakistan. The year 2022 had begun under the shadow of the shocking incident of a Sri Lankan Buddhist being lynched for alleged blasphemy and his body set on fire by a mob in Sialkot. A Christian pastor William Siraj was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Peshawar on January 30. Religious minorities in Pakistan are being driven to the precipice of extinction.
Pakistan’s birth itself was jinxed with bigotry and fanaticism. The Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League in 1940 let the communal genie jump out of the bottle in Punjab and other areas of India. The Muslim League contested the 1945–46 general election on the plank of aggressive communalism. Sir Bertrand Glancy, the then governor of Punjab, the heartland of the future Pakistan, reported to the British government on December 27, 1945, that “copies of the Holy Quran are carried around as an emblem peculiar to the Muslim League. [Punjab Muslim League leader] Firoz [Khan Noon] and others preach that every vote given to the League is a vote cast in favor of the Holy Prophet.” A communally charged atmosphere precipitated one of the bloodiest episodes of man’s history—Partition. Pakistan was born into bigotry and still lives in bigotry.
After Partition, Jinnah assured the minorities in Pakistan that they would be fully safeguarded and their religion, faith, belief, property and culture would have full protection. But even Jinnah’s celebrated August 11, 1947 speech in the Constituent Assembly, in which he promised an inclusive and impartial government, religious freedom, rule of law, and equality for all, was suppressed from the media on the behest of Chaudhary Muhammad Ali, then a rising star in Pakistani politics who went on to become the country’s fourth prime minister. Liaquat Ali Khan, the first prime minister, promoted the perception that Hindus in Pakistan were the potential fifth column for India. Jogendra Nath Mandal, Jinnah’s handpicked law minister, lamented in 1950 that “every Muslim feels that there should be no Hindus left inside Pakistan.” Disillusioned, Mandal soon left Pakistan.
Liaquat Ali Khan stated that Pakistan was a ‘laboratory’ for Islamic governance and insisted that the non-Muslims had to ‘cooperate’ in the experiment. Jinnah followed an accommodative policy towards Ahmadis and appointed Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, a prominent Ahmadi who later presided over the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice, as Pakistan’s first foreign minister. But the anti-Ahmadiyya campaign gained diabolical momentum under the banner of the Tehrik-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabbuwat (a movement to propagate the finality of Muhamad as the Prophet). A pogrom was unleashed on Ahmadis in 1953 in Punjab province, claiming the lives of over 2,000 Ahmadis. Mumtaz Daultana, the then chief minister of Punjab, portrayed the pogrom merely as a reflection of popular religious sentiment.
An ‘Objectives Resolution’ was moved by Liaquat Ali Khan in the Constituent Assembly in March 1949. The Resolution declared that “sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God Almighty alone” and that the State of Pakistan would exercise authority “within the limits prescribed by Him”. It was the death knell to Jinnah’s secular Pakistan. It triggered the everlasting process of Islamisation of Pakistan. Two prominent ulemas, Maulana Abul Ala Maududi of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani of the Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam, argued that as God’s will is suprema lex of the State, only the Ulema could interpret the laws of Allah. Thus, the foundation stone of a theocratic state was firmly laid. Maududi argued that the existence of non-Muslim culture in an Islamic state would corrupt Muslim life. Maulana Usmani asserted that non-Muslims cannot be entrusted with the responsibility of framing the general policy of the State or dealing with matters vital to its safety and integrity.
The Justice Munir Commission was appointed in 1953 to probe into the anti-Ahmadiyya pogrom. In addition, the Commission was entrusted to examine the ridiculous question of “who is a true Muslim as per Islamic theology”. The Commission observed: “According to the leading ulema, the position of non-Muslims in the Islamic State of Pakistan will be that of dhimmis and they will not be full citizens of Pakistan because they will not have the same rights as Muslims. They will have no voice in the making of the laws, no rights to administer the law, and no right to hold public offices.” Even Maulana Abdul Hamid Badayuni, a moderate Barelvi ulema, deposed before the Commission that non-Muslims could not be taken in the army or the judiciary or to be appointed as ministers or to other posts involving the reposing of confidence. The 1956 Constitution barred non-Muslims from holding the post of head of the state in Pakistan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto attempted to de-hyphenate Pakistani nationalism from Islamic ideology and to accommodate religious minorities. The second amendment to the Constitution (1974) pronouncing Ahmadis non-Muslims was a blot on the Bhutto regime. Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship was the most callous towards the minorities in Pakistan. Fanatic Jamaat-e-Islami collaborated with Gen. Zia in his Islamisation drive. Zia strengthened the notorious blasphemy law that turned into a nightmare for minorities. Parties like the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, known for its strong support of the draconian blasphemy law and demand for Sharia to become the fundamental law, are gaining political momentum.
Islamic Pakistan has been an ill-conceived plan that has been disastrously implemented. Liaquat’s laboratory exploded and the acid of fanaticism incinerated the minorities of Pakistan, and the theorem of Pakistan itself has been proved invalid.
(Views are personal)
Faisal C K
Under Secretary (Law) to the Government of Kerala