Although he is officially Muslim, Asif Ali Zardari, attended Christian missionary schools and a top boarding school on the banks of the Indus River near the city of Hyderabad, according to official records.
Zardari won about 69 percent of the vote, prompting celebrations in Pakistan’s parliament, where supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were jubilant as the election commissioner announced results from the national assembly and senate. The late Bhutto told BosNewsLife shortly before her assasination she wanted to reach out to all Pakistanis, regardless of their religious background.
While Zardari did not yet address increased anti-Christian attacks in Pakistan, his appointment was likely to boost expectations that those responsible will be prosecuted, according to a BosNewsLife analyse based on previous conversations with Christian leaders.
FRESH DETAILS
His election came as fresh details emerged that four Pakistani Muslims killed an elderly woman with an axe over a dispute with her husband. He has been unable to prosecute them due to his low social status as a Christian, said Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan, a Non-Governmental Organization supporting Christian prisoners.
Noban Bibi, 65, was apparently killed on July 2 in Pakistan ’s eastern Kasur province by Muslim thieves with links to local crime groups and national politicians. “The Muslims assume the Christians are sheep and don’t have any weight,” said Sohail Johnson, case worker and chief coordinator of Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan in published remarks.
The killing, which made media headlines, came shortly after another publicized incident involving the death of a young Christian man, who rights watchers believe was killed in May because of his one-year relationship with a Muslim woman.
PAKISTANI POLICE
Local Pakistani police declared the death of 19-year-old Adeel Masih on May 4 “a suicide”, but a high inspector has reopened the case and taken two Muslim suspects into custody. His family and human rights lawyers believe the relatives of his 19-year-old Muslim girlfriend, Kiran Irfan, tortured and killed him.
Christian women have also been targeted, including a Christian girl identified as Sanna, 13, who was raped in the street of an upscale area of the town of Sargodha late September 3, her father confirmed. Her father, Yaqub Masih, told BosNewsLife that she worked as a domestic servent at the house of an influential Muslim man, who confessed the crime. The police said the man, identified as Muhammad Shafeeq, allegedly offered her a cold drink, in which he mixed drugs, before raping her.
The girl, who has been hospitalized, reportedly said she does not remember the rape. She is no exception as there have been many similar cases involving Christian girls, rights groups say.
MORE PRESSURE
Amid pressure from radical Muslim clerics, a medical board is expected to determine the age of a Christian Pakistani girl allegedly forced to convert to Islam. The medical report on 13-year-old Saba Masih, who married a Muslim man, was due by her August 20 custody hearing. The custody battle over her and her 10-year-old sister, Aneela Masih – two girls raised as Christians who were kidnapped and allegedly converted to Islam – may be decided on their testimonies even though they contradict court evidence.
Rights groups suggest that murders and sexual abuse of Christian women are part of a wider strategy to create a climat of fear within the Christian community. Churches have been targeted by Muslim militants, who accuse them of promoting a Western religion, at a time when Pakistan is seen by the United States as a key country in the war on Islamic terrorism, BosNewsLife monitored.
The Governing body of Church of Christ has reportedly appealed to authorities to cancel interim bails of alleged land mafia and land grabbers who have occupied its churches in areas such as Punjab province.
ZARDARI’S RESCUE?
Christians were expected to monitor whether Zardari’s will come to their rescue. His two daughters held a portrait of their mother, Benazir Bhutto, as members of the party she once led congratulated them on their father’s victory.
Zardari soundly defeated his two other opponents, winning an estimated 482 of the 702 votes from lawmakers in Pakistan’s four provinces and the upper and lower house of parliament. His election caps a remarkable political revival for a man who spent 11 years in prison on corruption and murder charges – without ever being convicted.
Yet, on election day, there was another deadly reminder of the perilous security issues the government faces, when at least 10 people were killed by a car bomb in Peshawar, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported. Pakistani Taliban militants claimed credit for the attack.
