August 21, 2008

PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Joseph Francis, the National Director of Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) has said that Christian persecution and discrimination with minorities surged during former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s rule.

Francis said that the Christians of Pakistan suffered enormous injustices, discrimination and persecution during Musharraf’s rule.

“Christians were not immune from persecution and raw treatment during the tenure of Presidents that preceded Musharraf, but the scale of Christian persecution was worst during Musharraf’s rule,” said Francis.

Francis put forward statistics of Christian persecution during Musharraf’s rule. He claimed that over 55 churches were attacked and maintained that 58 Christians were murdered while 275 were wounded. Pointing to the misuse of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, Francis said that 212 blasphemy cases were registered from October 12, 1999 to August 18, 2008.

He said that some 10 blasphemy-accused had been killed extra-judicially during Musharraf’s stint as President. Among the victims of blasphemy-related extra-judicial killings, he said four of them were Christians while the rest were Muslims.

Musharraf’s popularity plummeted when he sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9, 2007. The President’s move of seizing emergency powers on November 3, 2007 further dented his popularity. The President made frequent promises on shedding his military uniform but he did not deliver on them. He took off his military uniform after coming under intense international pressure. The victory of Musharraf’s opponents on February 18, 2008 elections proved to be the last nail in Musharraf’s coffin.

Calls for Musharraf to quit from president’s office became strident two weeks ago, culminating at the decision of the ruling coalition to impeach president Musharraf if he did not resign. Musharraf resigned from the office of President on August 18 to avoid impeachment turmoil.

Mr. Joseph Francis said that Pervez Musharraf should have resigned way earlier than August 18 when he had started becoming unpopular with people of Pakistan.

Disputing former Pakistani President Musharraf’s claim that he had empowered Pakistani minorities, Francis said minorities on the contrary were discriminated against during President Musharraf’s rule.

He criticized Musharraf for introducing a host of constitutional amendments to prolong his rule. How the former President could justify his claim of empowering minorities when he did not even institute a single constitutional amendment to bring minorities at par with majority, he argued.

“Our Personal Laws continue to be violated,” he said. “No amendment has been made in Minorities Personal Laws including Marriage Act, Divorce Act and Inheritance Act during former the President’s rule.”