Daily Times

Hum Mein Se Eik (One of us). Three little words. One election slogan. All of which adds up to an immensely powerful message. This has been delivered by Jibran Nasir, a lawyer and human rights activist who is contesting polls as an independent from Karachi. His mandate is simple. Aside from urgent issues such as access to basic amenities — his priority is to give Pakistan’s minorities an equal and loud voice. This has ruffled more than a few feathers.

To the point where members of certain religious parties have been turning up at each and every one of his corner meetings. All that interests them is his position on faith; his own and that of others. Or put another way, they verbally attack and threaten him for not terming the persecuted Ahmadi community “infidels”. Even going as far as accusing him of sacrilege. Jibran and his team have courageously stood their ground. And while this is to be applauded, it should not have come to this. Thus we expect the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to do the needful and take action against the relevant parties; if, that is, it does not wish to be accused of selective myopia when it comes to the breaching of electoral etiquette.

These polls are being contested on religion and the politics of hate. That much has been understood since last year’s controversy surrounding Khatam-e-Nabuwwat, which was politicised for calculated mileage. And then there is everything that swiftly followed. From the Faizabad sit-in; to making public declarations of faith a mandatory prerequisite to holding public office; to a dangerous tirade on the floor of the National Assembly; to pushes for the state to effectively determine the names a particular minority sect can and cannot choose for themselves. In short, it is no exaggeration to conclude that a (collective) anti-Ahmadi mandate features heavily in the 2018 ballot. Thus we call on all branches of the state to take appropriate security measures for this community under relentless fire.

The one positive to emerge from all of this is that the resurgent and violent religious right appears to see Jibran as an existentialist threat of sorts; despite its immense ‘vote bank’. This suggests recognition that his manifesto enjoys popular support even if people are too afraid to come out and demonstrate this openly. For he is the only candidate to have taken such an unequivocally principled and bold stand for all minority communities; without compromise. Indeed, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has noted that he alone is being targeted in this way.

Thus it is the state’s responsibility to keep Jibran safe. Not, as he himself says, by providing him with security but by bringing to book those who freely engage in incitement to religious hatred.  *

Published in Daily Times, July 20^th 2018.