Daily Times

Pakistani Christians across the world are mobilising for Asia Bibi. This week saw international groups descend on the Swiss city of Zurich towards this end. Among others, these included: All Pakistan Christian League (Italy); Pakistan Orient Christian Organisation (France); and Overseas Pakistani Christian Alliance (Holland). All under the banner of Switzerland’s own Masih Overseas, a group advocating for Pakistani Christians.

This is to be welcomed. Though the fact that civil society groups from abroad are maintaining pressure on the Pakistani state underscores the precariousness of the beleaguered community in this country. Indeed, Asia Bibi is the first woman here to face the death penalty over blasphemy charges. Incarcerated for more than nine years and sentenced some eight years ago, she was granted the right to appeal back in April.

Asia Bibi has long been an international symbol of the persecution faced by Pakistan’s Christians. A French journalist has ghost-written her memoirs. The Pope himself termed her a martyr. Though this has not helped her secure the treatment she may need. For there are now fears, raised by the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), that the mother of five, who has remained in solitary confinement for the most part, is suffering from premature dementia. To date, she has not been tested for this condition.

That the plight of the most ‘high-profile’ Christian in this country has been insufficient to bring her any relief simply reinforces the suffering of this group as a whole. A fact that was brought home this week when news came in of a church, not far from Lahore, being torched. As well as the deliberate burning of a Christian family’s home, also in the Punjab, in an apparent land grab bid. It has been suggested that those behind the attack have links to the brother of former Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. While this has not been confirmed, none of those responsible, 12 in total, have been arrested. In fact, they have been granted pre-arrest bail. And then there is the matter of access to the Pakistan Christian Post website being suspended since mid-July.

We, here at this newspaper have said it before and we will say it again. One of the most important benchmarks of democracy is a state’s treatment of minorities. And protection of these communities should be viewed beyond the prism of casual tokenism to be firmly understood as a question of fundamental rights. Without this, Pakistan’s democratic transition becomes meaningless.  *

Published in Daily Times, September 27^th 2018.