Political turmoil affects 'vulnerable' minorities

As Pakistan celebrated its 70th birthday the country is facing political turmoil, following the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on charges of corruption.

Prime Minster Sharif, founder of the largest political party, was disqualified by the Supreme Court on 29 July, a decision which 'will throw the governing party and the country at large into turmoil ahead of elections due next year' according to the Guardian.

The charges were brought against Sharif by former cricket star Imran Khan, chairman of the centrist opposition party Tehreek-e-Insaaf, and Siraj-ul-Haq, the head of the conservative, Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Both of these parties have been accused of being too close to the military establishment. Pakistan has had a bumpy ride of democracy, with three military coups - lasting more than 30 years - since its independence in 1947.

Minorities 'most vulnerable'

The turmoil within the country only adds to the anxiety felt by Pakistans beleaguered Christian community. Numbering 3-5 million, Christians comprise little more than 1.5 per cent of the population.

Pakistan is 4th on the Open Doors 2017 World Watch List of the 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian. The country has stringent blasphemy laws and religious minorities are nowhere in the political and social strata.

Sharif's political party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), currently the ruling and largest political party in Pakistan, has a history of supporting Islamisation.

Senator Farhat Ullah Babar, a senior politician from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), says that the Nawaz government was not known for upholding minorities' rights. "In cases like arson attacks on Christian neighbourhoods, investigation and trial were not pursued as vigorously as they should have been," he said. "But Sharif's ousting will weaken Parliament and elected members, which means the rights of all sections of society tend to be weakened. Because minorities are the most vulnerable section, so their rights are also undermined."

The Daily Ummat, a conservative newspaper, published a headline on 31 July claiming that Sharif's ousting was the result of the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri in February 2016, on the Supreme Court's orders, for killing Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer. One source told World Watch Monitor that the hanging lost PMN-L hundreds of thousands of votes and that Sharif's party would suffer a backlash in the 2018 elections.

There also seems little hope that the Supreme Court will pick up the case of Asia Bibi - a Christian woman on death row for blasphemy. The Lahore High Court had requested that Parliament amend legal loopholes it identified in 2014, but so far no government action has been taken.