By Usman Zafar

After much hue and cry, ballyhooing and brouhaha, tongue wagging and finger pointing, the Punjab Provincial Assembly has finally allowed one of its members Kamran Michael to present the provincial budget. It’s a well deserved move for the junior politician, who holds the portfolio of the Ministry of Finance, making him a key leader of the ruling party in Punjab, the PMLN.

Why is it such a big deal whether the PMLN MPA presents the budget or not? Well, because ... Kamran Michael is a Christian.

It sounds rather anti-climatic. Religion shouldn’t be a make or break point when it comes to trivial symbolic presentations like the Provincial budget declaration. Since when does religion matter when it comes to announcing the percentage allocation of funds for health, education or infrastructure? Unfortunately for Pakistan, religion IS the make or break point, regardless of the issue. Michael, who is also the Provincial Minister for Minority Affairs, faced a minority discrimination of his own in the last few days, as reports emerged that his fellow MPAs were furious and refused to let him carry out his task because the act of a Christian presenting the budget is apparently a sin of the most grievous nature to the pro-Islamic lobby. To add insult to injury, most of the opposing MPAs hailed from Michael’s own party, the PMLN, who were afraid of offending their right-wing voter bank. Apparently, being a Muslim makes one especially qualified to run the financial affairs of the state. Apparently the PMLN is perfectly alright with securing votes from Christians for their own political power, but when it comes to giving back, religious, or should I say ‘Islamic’, sentiments triumph over common sense and fairness. Initially, the Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif gave in to the right-wingers and handed the Finance Ministry portfolio to Mian Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman, who was ‘Muslim’, and therefore aptly qualified by the standards of the other MPA’s. However, the international criticism and the protests from minority politicians proved too much, and Sharif was forced to reverse his decision.

Sharif’s turnaround is a great symbolic milestone, particularly for religious minorities, who have been unrepresented in mainstream politics for far too long. Whether it was a change of heart on part of the Punjab Chief Minister or simply coerced acquiescence is a separate question, but the act of letting a Christian MPA present the budget shows a sign of openness towards the idea of incorporating religious minorities into mainstream politics, a process that has been left rather deficient since the inception of Pakistan. However, one cannot help but dwell on the bad taste left by this ordeal. Why does religion matter in the affairs of the Pakistani state to such an extent that even symbolic gestures are to be judged by Islamic sentiments? And what kind of message does this give to the Christian, and indeed all religious minorities in Pakistan? That being of another faith means that you are simply not good enough to carry out instrumental tasks in a government?

One can only assess the ‘success’ of minority groups in the Kamran Michael incident with a grain of salt. The facade of perceived empowerment fails to mask the tangible and harsh realities faced by such communities, which face widening political and social disparities with every passing day. The most recent example of this concerns the legal hearings on the Gojra massacre in July 2009, where a Christian community was brutally targeted by Islamic groups allegedly over the ‘desecration of the Holy Quran’. Eight Christians were burnt alive, hundreds injured, and their homes destroyed, along with what remained of their lives. Yet justice, which appears to be incredibly swift for blasphemy law cases, moves at a snail’s pace when concerning religious minorities. This week the Faisalabad Anti-Terrorism Court decided to defer the hearings on the Gojra riots on 2009 for another year, while securing bails for 68 of the 70 accused. The reason cited is that 5 of the witnesses in the case are no longer in the country, presumably due to death threats received from Islamic groups. Yet the other 180 witnesses who testified to the sheer viciousness of the attackers don’t receive the same credence. Neither has there been any security provided for those willing to put their lives on the line to speak against these groups, which has inevitably led to their fleeing the country. It seems that any chance of justice for the Gojra inhabitants has vanished with this ruling.

The Gojra carnage is symptomatic of a deeper crisis within Pakistan, namely the inhuman treatment of religious minorities. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan termed 2010 as the deadliest year for people of other faiths, showcased by targeted attacks against Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus, resulting in the deaths of 418 people by Muslim sects. Furthermore, 73 members of these communities committed suicide, a number that must be assessed keeping in context the extreme political, social and economic disenfranchisement faced by many of these communities that drives their citizens into such desperation. The highlight was of course the tragic case of the Aasia Bibi blasphemy verdict fallout, where two top leaders of the ruling PPP were assassinated, simply for voicing their support for a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.

Personally, I believe that the Pakistani citizenship has never come to terms with the fact that it could be composed of citizens that weren’t Muslim. The intermeshed connection of Islam and its role in Pakistani state and society has reduced the minorities down to a proverbial thimble, wiping away their existence from mainstream discourse, leaving behind nothing but the thin white strip in the national flag that symbolizes their presence, or rather the lack of it. In urban areas they are reduced to menial jobs involving cleaning homes or public areas, while in rural areas they are often the target of Islamic groups who kidnap them or worse, in order to ‘convert’ them to Islam. Working class Christians are labelled as ‘Chooras’, a vicious slur which is considered perfectly appropriate in everyday usage, even among the so-called ‘affluent liberal’ class. It is no different from being called the N-word, for even ‘Choora’ is not simply a label, but a representation of the wretchedness faced by these people every day, as they are relegated to the bottom rungs of society, while the rest of us look down upon them as if it was their destiny to be so, and anything different would be an abomination. It is this mindset which explains the opposition to Kamran Michael, as it is difficult to fathom an empowered Christian in the political landscape, just as it was once difficult for America to imagine a black woman refusing to give up her seat in a bus.

In such an atmosphere, it comes down to the ruling parties to fight against the wave of Islamist based violence and hate, and take positive steps to ensure the safety and security of their citizens, no matter what their religion. It’s true that even the head honchos in the government aren’t spared from the ruthless aggression of these groups, but on the other hand the continuous pandering of these groups is only a short term solution with massive ramifications for the future, as the groups are only further encouraged by the government’s spineless approach to the matter. This has led to absolutely extreme steps taken by the right to suffocate religious openness in Pakistan, such as this week’s demand from the politico-religious party Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Samiul Haq (JUI-S) to publically ban the bible within 30 days due to the presence of ‘blasphemous passages that are a cause of humiliation for Muslims.’ This may seem like a fringe view, until one sees the absolute inability or/and the active encouragement of the state towards such dissent, which leads to the transfer of these ideologies from the fringes to the mainstream. There is a failure to learn from past mistakes, and instead every day is an extension of the appeasement policy towards religious extremism, not just out of fear, but due to maintenance of political legitimacy by refusing to confront the pro-Islamic voter bank. These are the very same voter banks that house extremist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which have been involved in Islamist violence of extreme proportions, but yet their members remain elusive as always. In a strange way democratic rule actually has a counter-intuitive effect on human rights violations in Pakistan, as many of the groups involved in violence against minority groups, also happen to have tremendous political power through electoral clout, a classic case of deTocqueville’s ‘Tyranny of the Majority’. As a result, the persecution, discrimination and bloodshed faced by minorities is in far greater proportion to their percentage of the population. Meanwhile their killers remain at large, and even when sent to the courts, they are freed, a sign of institutional weakness at the very centre of the state. The institution holders are either weak, or incompetent, or biased or perhaps all.

The Punjab government has set a much needed precedent by letting a Christian MPA present the budget, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of the courts that have delayed the verdict on the Gojra riots once again, with no conclusion in sight. The state needs to realize that it is not just led by its society, but also has to play an important role in reforming it. However, faced with multiple crises, our leaders seem preoccupied with a one-point agenda: survival. Strangely enough, that’s the same agenda of our religious minorities, though even that seems too much to ask at this moment.