believers gathered in front of Pakistan’s parliament in Islamabad to pray and protest against persecution and social injustice, the Pakistan Christian Post online newspaper reported Tuesday, August 30. The Christians, dressed in sackcloth with ashes on their heads, held their demonstration as police investigations continued into the killing of prominent Roman Catholic layman Derick Cyprian, a former government minister for minorities, who was found, strangled on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore, August 9.
His murder has been linked to Cyprian’s efforts as minister to amend Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.
Human rights watchers and church officials say vague statutes have been misused by Muslim extremists to sentence Christian and other minorities to years of imprisonment without bail and threaten them with execution, until the "false charges" are overturned.
NOBEL NOMINEE
Former Federal Minister J. Salik, who is reportedly a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, said during the Islamabad demonstration that in the last 58 years, "minority problems have not been solved" and that the government "should listen to their problems at least once a year."
Christians account for less than three percent of Pakistan’s 150 million mainly Muslim population, and have been targeted by Islamist militant groups, who also influence politics.
Salik expressed concern about the apparently anti-Christian climate, including restrictions on changing religions as well as the alleged discrimination of Christians in the state budget. He said many believers were deprived of "basic facilities" and forced to live in poverty and slums.
FORCED EVACUATIONS?
As a result, hundreds of Christian residents in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, for instance, may be forced off their land in the face of soaring land values, the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) said earlier this month. Local officials have allegedly attempted to persuade Christians to sell their land at prices far below the market rate.
"Because we are poor, they think they can convince us to take small amounts and vacate the land. But we know the actual rates are now much higher and these will continue to go up as the area is developed," Yousaf Masih, who bought a plot in the locality in 1999, told IRIN.
The plots of land in the Yohanabad-II neighborhood was originally secured by the Roman Catholic Church of Pakistan in the late 1990s to re-settle impoverished Christians who had been evicted from shantytowns across Lahore, IRIN reported
EXCLUSIVE COLONY
It was exclusively reserved for them and in 1999, those seeking land in the colony, reportedly paid for a plot $600 in installments. A catholic aid group, Caritas, collected the money and issued receipts as proof of purchase.
The colony was dedicated to the late Bishop John Joseph who committed suicide in May 1998 in the southern Punjab town of Sahiwal. He reportedly shot himself in public at a rally to protest against the country’s blasphemy laws.
Salik noted a similar situation in slums in Islamabad, but stressed it was difficult for Pakistani Christians to improve their social conditions and fight Islamic extremism as they have almost no voice in Parliament.
PARLIAMENT SEATS
Although the 207 parliamentary seats have been raised to 335, minorities still have only 10 seats which, he said, "have been filled by selection rather than election."
The Pakistani government has promised to tackle Islamic extremism, but human rights groups say it should do more to protect Christians. (With BosNewsLife Research, BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Pakistan).
