The deadly attack on Ahmedis, killing one unborn child, two little girls and one old grandmother, has underscored just how bad the situation has gotten for a community that has, from the making of Pakistan till now, always contributed to the progress of this hapless nation. The loss is ours as Pakistanis. We would do well to remember that Jinnah had relied greatly on Ahmedis during the Pakistan Movement and his main lieutenant, the great Sir Zafrullah Khan, was an Ahmedi. Zafrullah Khan ably represented the Muslim League before the Punjab Boundary Commission and earned praise from the Quaid-e-Azam himself. Jinnah, being a principled man, refused to bow to mullah demands against the Ahmedis. Zafrullah Khan was the most valiant champion of the two oldest causes in the Muslim world, Kashmir and Palestine. Pakistan’s only Nobel Prize winner, Dr Abdus Salam, was an Ahmedi. Abdus Salam was also — along with Rafi Chaudhry — the true founder of Pakistan’s nuclear programme. The only general of the Pakistan army to die in the two wars was an Ahmedi. Ahmedis have given their blood to the progress and prosperity of this country that now wishes to extinguish their faith. Meanwhile, in India, the country Ahmedis left behind for Pakistan, moving their community en masse to Rabwah from Qadian out of sheer love for the new country, the situation for Ahmedis is considerably better though the stresses of the intra-Muslim conflict are visible in India too. Nevertheless, it is a searing indictment of our national project, wholly a consequence of our own intolerance and bigotry.
Instead of appreciating the role of this enterprising community in nation building, we continue to burn their ‘places of worship’ that, since 1984, cannot be called mosques by law. So insecure is the faith of the majority of Pakistani Muslims that it is likely to be threatened even by the very existence of Ahmedis in Pakistan. The campaign against Ahmedis dates back to the 1930s when the Majlis-e-Ahrar, a Muslim subsidiary of the Congress Party, ironically started arousing anti-Ahmedi feelings in Punjab. The Madhe-Sahaba Movement against Shias in Lucknow was started by the same Majlis-e-Ahrar with the express purpose of defeating the Muslim League in that city. Today, the remnants and spiritual followers of Ahrari leaders rule the roost. One such example is that of Allama Tahir Ashrafi, the head of the Pakistan Ulema Council. He is a devotee of Ataullah Shah Bokhari, the Ahrari leader who had once called Pakistan “Kafiristan”.
In recent years, the maulana has become the favourite of foreign donors from well meaning western nations, including the European Union, when it comes to promoting religious freedom in Pakistan. This he has achieved by presenting himself as a “sane and moderate” mullah who promotes “interfaith harmony”. In actual reality, like his forebearers Ataullah Shah Bokhari and Shorish Kashmiri, he is a sectarian bigot without a mask, his good work notwithstanding. He was a supporter of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba that is notorious in its anti-Shia rhetoric. More recently though, his guns have been pointed at the Ahmedis. A day before the Gujranwala pogrom, he said on a television show that Ahmedis were blasphemers and that civil society should not stand up for blasphemers. The maulana is also behind most of the police cases under which Ahmedis are being booked in Lahore and elsewhere. Most of these cases are a perversion of even the notoriously anti-Ahmedi law that Ahmedis have previously been booked under.
Given that religious scholars are nothing but shopkeepers of religiousity whose livelihood depends on such hatemongering, it is hardly surprising that Ashrafi resorts to such incitement to violence. What is surprising however is the funding from western sponsors. Why are the donors so keen on funding someone who is so obviously opposed to religious freedom in the country, especially when most of these donors are from countries that say they are keen to have the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights implemented in letter and spirit? This has been achieved through deception. Tahir Ashrafi, in the immediate aftermath of Salmaan Taseer’s martyrdom, to his credit was one of the very few clerics who had the courage to condemn Mumtaz Qadri. His work on the Rimsha issue was also commendable. Why is he then unable to see the obvious injustice of his position on Ahmedis and Shias? One may point out that the maulana seems to condemn incidents only when the perpetrators are Barelvis as was the case in Salmaan Taseer’s assassination and in the Rimsha issue. Ironically, therefore, his motivation even in an otherwise commendable stance emanates out of his prejudices against Barelvis and not necessarily any faith in justice or fair play.
On the issue of Ahmedis, there is a broad based consensus amongst maulanas of all hue and cry and, unfortunately, this consensus has been owned by the state, starting in 1974. Even Shia maulanas, themselves looking down the barrel of a gun, have in the past supported the marginalisation of Ahmedis in Pakistani society. It is clearly one thing if doctrinally one believes Ahmedis to be outside the fold of Islam (though it should not be the state’s duty to determine that) and quite another to create conditions for their extermination as a community. The stated objective of the anti-Ahmedi ulema and executioners is nothing less than complete annihilation of Ahmedis in Pakistan. In such a situation, it is the government’s responsibility to restrain those individuals who are threatening a law abiding and non-violent community with looting, destruction and death. In this, the current Punjab government has a lot to explain, especially the fact that under its watch, since 2008, all minorities, especially the Ahmedis who have been forced to don the minority mantle, have been subjected to the most barbaric incidents of violence unprecedented even for a country that is no stranger to violence.
Let me jog your memory a little: Gojra, Joseph Town, Model Town and Garhi Shahu happened under the watch of this government. One may also remember that before the Abbottabad Commission, General Pasha had pointed out how the police was complicit in the second attack on Ahmedis in a government run hospital. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s record on this count is so much worse than now Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record in Gujarat. In any civilised country a government that has failed so consistently in protecting a class of its people would have resigned long ago but not so in Pakistan where hanging on to power despite incompetence is a priority.
The persecution of Ahmedis is a red blot on our conscience that we will never be able to erase but at least we can now wake up and protect the community. You and the constitution may not recognise them as Muslims but are they not citizens of this country? So long as they are citizens, they should enjoy the same fundamental rights as any other citizen of the country.
The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and the author of the book Mr Jinnah: Myth and Reality. He can be contacted via twitter @therealylh and through his email address [email protected]