Daily Times

The creation of Pakistan was always going to be controversial, open to misinterpretation and misuse by many sections both amongst the Muslims and amongst the Hindu majority in India. Jinnah and the Muslim League had posited the idea that Muslims were a nation instead of a minority in 1940 to bypass the inconvenience of being outvoted 3 to 1 in constitution making. The ultimate objective was to keep the union center as limited as possible and even better have a separate center for Muslim majority areas which could then enter into a confederation or treaty union with the rest of India. This was the concept of Pakistan in a nutshell. Instead the British government and Indian National Congress imposed a moth eaten Pakistan on Muslim League, based on partition of Punjab and Bengal.

After partition Jinnah told his friend Hashoo Kewal Ramani: “Look here, I never wanted this damn Partition! It was forced upon me by Sardar Patel. And now they want me to eat humble pie and raise my hands in defeat.” Having been handed this Pakistan Jinnah realised the idea of Muslim identity as the basis of the state was not a useful undertaking. He realised that the only way Pakistan would be justified is if it builds up a secular idea of citizenship. Other than 11 August speech where he clearly and unambiguously buried two nation theory when he said that “in course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in a religious sense, but as citizens of one state.” He also poignantly declared that had it not been for such divisions India would have been a free country long time ago. After saying that in his estimate the idea of a United India would have never worked, he went on to say that only time will tell if this view is correct or not. The burden that Pakistan bears is the weight of history. Only if Pakistan could eradicate the religious difference between its citizens, could it have been justified in the eyes of history. As things stand the answer to Jinnah’s question is no. Pakistan has failed to live to any expectations he might have had. This bears repeating.

Pakistan today has several classes of citizenship, both de jure and de facto. It is an inverted pyramid really. On top of it is the general class of Muslims who are the only ones allowed to become the president and the prime minister of the republic

Pakistan today has several classes of citizenship, both de jure and de facto. It is an inverted pyramid really. On top of it is the general class of Muslims who are the only ones allowed to become the president and the prime minister of the republic. They are also the only ones allowed on two other constitutional institutions, the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Federal Shariat Court. In practical reality even the office of the Chief of Army Staff and the positions of top generals in the army are reserved for Muslims even if it does not say so anywhere. Within this general superior class are still two classes – Sunnis and Shias- Sunnis enjoying the upper hand. Think about it – how many Chiefs of Army Staff have been Shias since General Zia ul Haq took over? There have only been four heads of state and one prime minister who have been Shias. First one being Jinnah himself (though constitutionally he was the representative of King George VI), Iskandar Mirza who was both the last Governor General and the first President, Yahya Khan who was our second military dictator and Asif Ali Zardari. Benazir Bhutto was the only Shia prime minister- woefully less than their numbers would indicate. Therefore Sunnis are the first-class citizens and Shias are second-class citizens of Pakistan.

Below the Muslims there are the religious minorities hovering around 4%. For our purposes we will not count Parsis in this list as their numbers have dwindled worldwide (and in Pakistan to less than 3000) and who were always class apart. NADRA data shows 1500 Buddhists but I am yet to meet a single one. Similarly the 800 Pakistanis who claim to be Jews can be set aside because their claims are tenuous at best. Within the minorities group, at least since the 1980s, Sikhs have a privileged status as evidenced by Kartarpur recently. Even though every unbiased account of partition violence lays the blame of violence on Sikh Jathas, they are still taken to be the best of minorities in Pakistan and well respected, which one does not grudge. They are the third class of citizens. Christians in Punjab and Caste Hindus in Sindh are ranked almost equally with them having some social mobility in terms of professions etc. However Christians are generally preferred in the military over the Hindus so we can safely say that Christians are fourth-class citizens and Hindus are fifth-class citizens in Pakistan. The residual scheduled castes – those who did not convert to Islam or Christianity- are doubly discriminated first by the state and secondly within the Caste Hindu community which maintains its caste consciousness. They form the sixth class of citizens in Pakistan.

Below all of these groups is the Ahmadi community. First stripped of their Muslim identity and forcibly declared a minority, they are now virtually non-citizens. It is argued that this denial of citizenship is because they do not accept themselves as Non-Muslims and therefore by extension do not accept the Constitution of Pakistan. Ahmadis have never broken the law and have accepted even the most unjust of laws against them. As far as their right not to think that they are Non-Muslims; that is a right granted by Article 20 of the Constitution. Disagreeing with any part of the constitution is not disobedience to the constitution. That is what the amendment process is for.

The other night a TV anchor was grilling government ministers to find out who put Ahmadis on the minorities’ commission. This is incredible. First you make them a minority and then you also deny them their fundamental rights under the constitution. We all know what happened with Atif Mian when he was put on the Economic Advisory Council. As things stand Ahmadis are not allowed to hold any office whatsoever in the state, even those that are reserved for minorities. In the last few weeks, the hatred against Ahmadis has spiked to levels, which are unacceptable. One fears now that an unthinking majority will subject this community to a holocaust and the state will be entirely complicit in it. We stand at the threshold of a great tragedy. If Pakistanis do not care about the culling of about a million people for their faith, they should know that this will make Pakistan a pariah state cut off from the outside world for decades to come. The price for such genocide will be paid by your future generations. Meanwhile history will definitively answer Jinnah’s question in the negative.

I can only ask those who are leading us to the precipice of a great disaster to cry halt before it is too late and Pakistan stands forever sullied in human history like Nazi Germany. Let us build Pakistan on the basis of what Jinnah said on 11 August, a country which does not discriminate nor allow discord on the basis of faith. Let us tear down these distinctions and make Pakistan a state that the posterity will bless not curse.

The writer is an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan