A prominent and long-time Christian human rights activist was recently appointed as Pakistan’s federal minister for minorities affairs and recruited as a member of the cabinet – the first time a minorities affairs minister has a cabinet-level post.
Shahbaz Bhatti, founder and president of All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), is the minister for minorities affairs and will be defending minorities’ rights, especially religious, in a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim – 95 percent of the Pakistani population is Muslim, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Christians and rights groups are hopeful that his cabinet position will give them a more powerful voice in government affairs. In the past, the protection of minorities was relegated to a lower ranking official who worked under one of the government ministers.
“We warmly welcome his appointment and congratulate the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan on this decision,” said U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide chief executive Mervyn Thomas, in a statement Wednesday.
Thomas noted that the organization has known and worked with Bhatti for many years.
“We hope that the whole Government of Pakistan will support Shahbaz in his new position, and that significant progress will be made towards the protection of equal rights for all the people of Pakistan, and the repeal of the widely-abused blasphemy laws which cause so much misery for so many,” he added.
For many years, Bhatti has been the foremost activist for the repeal of the country’s blasphemy laws and for equal rights for all religious minorities.
The country’s blasphemy laws have been widely abused to persecute Christian minorities, who are often falsely accused of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammed or desecrating the Quran.
Pakistani Muslims often are motivated by personal reasons, such as land dispute or other small arguments, when they accuse Christians of blasphemy.
Last summer, Younis Masih, 29, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammed.
According to APMA, the day before the young Christian man was arrested he had reportedly asked a neighbor to turn down the volume of some loud religious music. He was subsequently beaten unconscious by a mob and his wife was also beaten when she attempted to intervene.
In addition to the unfair blasphemy laws, the Pakistan National Assembly has also considered passing a new apostasy bill that would sentence to death all Muslim men converting from Islam and impose life imprisonment for women apostates.
David Drew MP (Member of Parliament), who traveled to Pakistan with CSW in 2005 and met with Bhatti, praised the Pakistani government’s decision for appointing a prominent activist to the cabinet and voiced hope for improvement for the country’s minorities.
“I was deeply impressed by Shahbaz Bhatti’s courage, commitment and personal sacrifice in pursuit of the cause of human rights and justice for all the people of Pakistan, and by his extraordinary dedication to championing the rights of religious minorities who face severe discrimination and persecution,” Drew said. “His appointment by the President of Pakistan to this ministerial position, and the decision to promote the post to Cabinet-rank, is to be warmly welcomed.”
Bhatti founded the Christian-inspired APMA movement in 1985, and one of his first campaigns was against the blasphemy law that was introduced in 1986. The Christian community is the hardest hit by the blasphemy laws.
As the new minister for minorities affairs, Bhatti has promised to propose legislative reform to protect minorities’ rights and promote unity and understanding between different groups.
"Jesus is the nucleus of my life," Bhatti said when he took the oath for office in November, according to Asia News, "and I want to be His true follower through my actions by sharing the love of God with poor, oppressed, victimized, needy and suffering people of Pakistan."
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Daniel, if you take bible's commands on deeds to every Pakistani citizen, they will come back to say that is what we have in The-Qur'an. The problem happends when some raises fingers against the beliefs of the others.
Pakistanis believe in Jesus as Messenger of God and they are not against his teachings even those mentioned in the Bible. What Christians should do, is to seek common grounds. The process will allow them to distribute bible as long as they do not impose their faith like Jesus is god, Jesus is son of god and so on. For the Pakistanis and Muslims in general "This is blasphamous against their religious belief".
Start with commonalities then convey your faith that sound a good strategy.
I have a friend who is from Pakistan. He would differ with your oppinion greatly, Cameron. What I read in what you posted is it is OK for Christians to believe their faith as long as they stick to themselves and keep their mouths shut. Just FYI, my friend agrees with that assessment of Pakistan. The problem is the Bible says to take the Gospel of Jesus to the ends of the earth. In Pakistan you can get killed for that.
Constitutionally, Christians are protected lot in Pakistan and there are rare incidents when a blasphamy law is evoked against any Christian. To my perception, none among Christians should interfere in Muslim religious matters that will be the best security for Christian minority in Pakistan.
Muslims (95%) in Pakistan respect Christians if they stick to the teachings of Jesus Christ from the Gospel. Even Muslims revere Jesus Christ as Messenger of God why should they hurt the Christians for that matter.
Beside extremist Muslims in Pakistan, certain Christian zealots are also to be blamed for any bad relation between the two communities. Let Pakistan have their own blasphemy laws protecting their creeds but we Christians should not interfere in their affairs. As long as that patience is maintained, I see a bright future for the Christians in Pakistan. Thanks to God, we do not have terrible situation in Pakistan as we have experienced in India.