Rights of Minorities: Judicial allies arbitrate endemic extremism

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is brazenly and brutally bruising the rights of the minorities by not permitting them to live with dignity and their religious belief. It is the regular feature of the so-called Islamic Republic that the minor girls of minority communities are regularly abducted, raped, tortured, traumatized and the same lead to their conversion to Islam.

These poor and helpless innocent girls have no control over the monstrous annihilation unleashed by the abductors. Who happens to have the wholehearted illicit support from the administration.

The recent abduction of a 14-year-old Christian girl, namely, Maria Shahbaz in Faisalabad in Pakistan in April 2020 by Muhammad Naqash and his henchmen when she was going to her workplace. The matter was adjudicated by the court of Session in Faisalabad, which returned the verdict of rehabilitation of the girl in the shelter home.

The abductor assailed the order of the Session court before the High court of Lahore which in turn reversed the judgment and ordered that the minor girl be restored with the abductor. The judgment of the Lahore High Court is so atrocious and horrendous that it will shock the conscience of every right-thinking person(s) of the society including the Republic of Pakistan.

The tone and tenor of the judgment reveal completely and incontrovertibly that the Judiciary of Pakistan has also compromised with hardliners in the majority. The judges are not owing allegiance to the oath which they have taken in terms of the constitution of the Islamic Republic.

It is known globally that the Judiciary is the guardian of the citizens of the country and if the judiciary itself will embrace the process of persecution either under the fear of fanatics or the ISI what will happen to the safety and security of the minorities living over there.Since partition indeed it will be a sad tribute to the “Quaid-I Azam” of Pakistan late Mohammed Ali Jinnah who at the time of the creation of Pakistan in 1947 had said in explicit and unambiguous words that those belonging to minority clan have opted to live in Pakistan would be treated equally with the majority.

The judgment of the Lahore High Court (supra) has given a seismic shock to the entire planet and merits to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The Government of India must take the matter through the legal and diplomatic process available under the law lest such hydra-headed atrocities come to an end. The prevailing law there states that subjecting a girl to sexual intercourse who is below the age of sixteen is construed statutory rape and carries a death sentence or minimum incarceration of 10 years.

It debars the accused/rapist to put any kind of defense. In the majority in such cases of sexual offences, the defense from the accused is always of consensual sex. The same is the law in our country under section 376 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 which explicitly states that if the girl is below the age of sixteen, the consent or no consent would be of no significance.The rapist has to suffer the statutory sentence.

The Union of India in order to eliminate the sexual offences being committed upon the minor girls and boys enacted the stringent law, namely, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in the year 2012, and it was also amended on 24 April 2018.

Sulema Jahangir, the board member of AGHS Legal Aid Cell and advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan and a solicitor of senior courts of England and Wales lucidly published an article relating to the elimination of the rights of the minorities, the same reads thus:-

“OVER the years, the laws applicable to the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan have shifted from being neutral to blatantly discriminatory — from electoral laws, family laws, law on evidence, Hudood laws, redistribution of income through Zakat and Ushr, trust and evacuee property laws, domicile and nationality, to offences against religion.”

The article was duly published by the leading journal of Pakistan, namely, Dawn on April 12, 2020, under the caption “Forced Conversions.” The above-named author condemned such conversions vociferously and also made scathing observations against the prevailing legal system. She deserves to be commended for her brave and righteous voice.

It appears beyond any shred of doubt that amour fou of the fundamentalist under the name of holy Islam are committing brutalities that are against the holiest of holy tenets of Islam. It was expected by the world at large that Pakistan will substantially improve qua brutalities and persecution upon the minorities under the aegis of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Unfortunately, the reverse is occurring as the public which in their native language is known “Awaam” is also not happy and feels deceitfully deceived by the Pakistan Tarike Insaaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, because of the high and unbearable rate of inflation, law and order problem and the minorities being regularly marginalized which has led to fleeing of various migrants to India and who are seeking asylum.

Before parting with this short article, it would not be out of context to share, herein, that the author had personal interaction with the Prime Minister, Imran Khan on the eve of 5th anniversary of the Jaipur edition of Hindustan Times, in the year 2005.

The authors’ ancestors being from Pakistan in its anxiety put a question to him “Whether it is necessary for the ruling party over there, irrespective of its allegiance, in order to rule, keep the issue of Kashmir alive; the plain and simple answer given was that you are right, hardliners think so.” The story was carried out by the various newspapers. Regrettably, the power is so near to everyone barring with notable exceptions that the present Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has also fallen in the trap of power.