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No votes for Ahmadiyya Muslims
19/ 2/2008
I write in relation to the elections which took place in Pakistan yesterday. Senior members of the Pakistani Government claimed they were conducted freely and fairly but in fact this is a myth. The reality is that they failed to disclose that not everyone in Pakistan had the right to vote. In particular, members of the Ahmadiyya Community, which played an instrumental role in the forming and governance of Pakistan, due to certain wholly unjust provisions in Pakistan’s Constitution, were denied the fundamental right to vote.
In 1985 under the cruel regime of General Zia-ul-Haq the 8th Amendment to the Pakistan Constitution of 1973 was sanctioned which led to the development of a separate electorate list. The list was clearly created to discriminate against and deprive Ahmadi Muslims their fundamental human rights, as under the list those who claimed to be Muslims had to sign a certificate denying the truth of the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and as such disassociate themselves from the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), something which Ahmadi Muslims clearly will never do.
This list remained in force during the subsequent regimes of the late Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. The situation is no better under the present regime. There is a general, wholly incorrect, impression that President Pervez Musharraf is a moderate and wants to remove extremist elements in Pakistan. The truth is he is influenced by such extremist elements to the extent that under his regime a ‘Supplementary’ list of voters was created in which members of the Ahmadiyya Community were classed as ‘non-Muslims’. This is his idea of democracy!
In other countries such injustice would never be tolerated. Pakistan is a country that is suffering in so many respects because it has fallen upon a path of grave corruption, grave injustice and grave hatred. It is hoped that such leaders come to the fore in Pakistan who value truth and absolute justice above personal wealth and power. Only then will there be free and fair elections in Pakistan.
Farooq Aftab, Huddersfield
Most recent 2 of 2 user comments
20/02/2008 at 09:49
Got an opinion you want to share?Do you think racism is more rife in modern day Britain?
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Notwithstanding this, why should the writer not point out an injustice, wherever it takes place in the world? Calls for justice are not the preserve of those who inhabit the country in which it is taking place. Shamas would surely not argue that those around the world who argued South African apartheid was abhorrent during the apartheid regime there were wrong to do so. In fact, it was such calls by Governments and individuals around the world which, together with the struggle of those being oppressed in South Africa, helped to bring about the eventual change in that evil regime.
21/02/2008 at 08:27