For years, I have been watching, reading, writing on and, most recently, visiting families who have been targeted for their faith and have faced the worst atrocities. This is an eye-watering experience by anyone’s standards, the challenges facing Christians in Pakistan, remain unchanged for generations. What would you wish for this Christmas? Especially, after religious oppression in Pakistan has become one of the biggest human rights issues of this era. It’s hard not to see last year’s Christmas as a missed opportunity.
It is correct my faith has been edified through my interactions with numerous victims, whose lives have been lived on the margins. However, listening to such compelling stories, particularly the cases of forced conversion, the culture of silencing, and our habits of denial speak, what else is left for Christians to celebrate?
It doesn’t have to be this way, the endless aggression, the pandemic of forced conversion and marriages have devastated families, emptied villages, and forced families to flee Pakistan. In reality, there is a wealth of evidence to corroborate each crime associated with faith or belief is planted on purpose, intentionally causing great suffering, or severe injury to the body or the mental health of the victims. Last week, the Minorities Alliance Pakistan (MAP), slammed forced conversions of underage minorities girls, through criminal means and urged that the government of Pakistan devise a uniform policy for the protection of religious minorities. We cannot let this carnage drag on.
The suffering of Christians is an end product of the policymakers, religious actors and stakeholders’ failures.
I have been banging on about crimes in the name of religion for all my life, but the voices for change are getting silent and weary. Once I walked into the Court hearing in Lahore to show my support to the victims of forced conversion and came out with fresh wounds. Especially, after meeting a mourning mother of an underage Christian girl in the Courtroom who was forcefully converted and raped by his abductor. For a second, I was caught up in a “doom loop” and failed to count on her tears, but she told me loud and clear for God sake – “Allow us the option of painless Christmas”.
For nearly 70 years, seeds of arrogance, hyper-nationalism and bureaucratic incompetence have become home to a huge array of monsters, who continue to infect the soil of Jinnah’s Pakistan. How many more times does it need to happen? How much more proof do we need that the country is run by a mindset with contempt for the rule of law, and a dysfunctional system beyond anyone’s reach?
As a result, you can certainly sense a strange mixture of feelings: expectation, cynicism, and despair on this Christmas. Just think about those, who will experience tension and uncertainty, while others will spend their Christmas, absent loved ones languishing in prison or killed in Peshawar or Quetta Church attacks or the Joseph colony, lynching incident. In addition, numerous churches have been targeted, infusing fear in the community and the culture of false accusations have continued to malign society. In my view, a greater understanding of the scale of the problem should create a greater sense of urgency and focus but sadly this is not the case in Pakistan.
It is unfortunate, Pakistan’s failings, mistakes, and inflexibilities cost minorities dearly at times. Their persecution and human rights situation is a turning point; it leaves Pakistan facing immense challenges, to retain GSP+ status, to be removed from the FTFA’s grey list and to attract foreign investment to open a new page in its history. The past decade has been a bruising one for the health of the minority’s rights and religious freedom. Unfortunately, all governments and their players have failed to upscale a culture that is capable of embracing differences. That’s why cultural, ethnic, and religious tensions have become core ingredients of religious persecution and when leaders of vulnerable groups attempt to engage with the government, they are neglected and humiliated further.
It is becoming worryingly frequent, the act of a ground-breaking piece of legislation is missing, and that’s why Pakistan fails and fails again to restore the true spirit of Jinnah’s vision. The rejection of the anti-forced conversion and minorities’ protection bill wasn’t sweet of the PTI government which has a duty to protect citizens.
It is not my blind admiration but rather a fascination to learn how Christians contributed most to the economy for 70 years, emerging from a country that no longer exists. Religious minorities particularly Christians have contributed so much in the fields of music, education, health, judiciary, sports but yet you hardly find their names in the textbooks or engraved on any monument. And it is almost always ignored in the history books and state archives of Pakistan. Let me remind you, the Christians have been a vital part of Pakistan’s cultural scene for years: Colin David was one of Pakistan’s most eminent painters, while the Benjamin Sisters, A Nayyar, Saleem Raza, Irene Parveen and Leo Twins contributions to the music and film industry are legendary. Among others, Wallis Mathias was the first Christian to play for the Pakistan cricket team in 1955, and Jack Britto was an Olympic Hockey player who represented Pakistan in 1952.
The commendable role played by our heroes in the armed forces like Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry, Air Commodore Nazir Latif, Air Vice Marshal Michael John O’Brien, Wing Commander Mervyn Leslie Middlecoat, Squadron Leader Peter Christy, Brig (R) Simon Sahriff, Maj Gen. Noel Israel Khokhar has left a mark of bravery and patriotism in the history. And how we can forget Justice Alvin Bobby, and Robert Cornelius, Dr James Shera, Sister Ruth Lewis, Johnson Bernard, Miss Nicole, Dr Peter Johnson David, and Nadib Gill who have played an unprecedented role to represent Pakistan and building a nation.
Anyway, it is with regret, the suffering of Christians is an end product of the policymakers, religious actors and stakeholders’ failures, who have been unsuccessful to advance the culture of acceptance, space, and dialogue in Pakistan.
In the prevalent of such a “joy killer” ordeal, many of my Christian friends look at me with tear-filled eyes to ask, is Pakistan still a “love nest” for them? Perhaps, this moment remarkably compels me to rethink the fragile, crumbling, and falling apart-Pakistan, which was not the one that our founding father handed us.
The writer is based in UK, and has specialization in health informatics from Johns Hopkins University.