wfn.org | Pakistani Churches Welcome Government's Removal, Fear Martial Law

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

21-October-1999 
99356 
 
    Pakistani Churches Welcome Government's Removal, 
    but Fear Martial Law 
 
    by Anto Akkara 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NEW DELHI - Church leaders in Pakistan have welcomed the military overthrow 
of the country's democratic government, led by Prime Minister Nawas Sharif. 
 
    However, they warned that an extended period of martial law, as has 
happened previously in Pakistan, would be unacceptable. 
 
    The military coup d'etat - the third in the nation's 52-year history - 
took place on Oct. 12, only hours the Sharif government announced the 
dismissal of the country's army chief, General Pervez Musharraf.  The army 
reacted within hours by "dismissing" the Sharif government, putting the 
prime minister under house arrest and taking control of key installations, 
including state-run radio and television. 
 
    "My dear countrymen, I wish to inform you that the armed forces have 
moved in as a last resort, to prevent any further destabilization," General 
Musharraf said in a television broadcast to the nation in the early hours 
of Oct. 13. 
 
    Most church leaders in Pakistan, interviewed by ENI by telephone, 
welcomed the overthrow of the Sharif government, which was deeply 
unpopular. 
 
    "This is a requirement of the situation," said Victor Azariahs, general 
secretary of the National Council of Churches of Pakistan (NCCP), which 
groups four Protestant churches and 15 church-related organizations. 
Though the military dismissal of an elected government might be technically 
"unconstitutional," Azariahs said, there was "nothing wrong" with the army 
"overthrowing an unpopular government" as long as the people were in favor 
of the government's removal. 
 
    The latest political upheaval has come as "no surprise at all. In fact, 
we were expecting it for some time," Archbishop Armando Trindade of Lahore, 
president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan (CBCP) told ENI. 
 
    According to the SBS World Guide, the vast majority of the 140 million 
Pakistanis are Muslim. Of the 3 million Christians in the country, about 
half are Roman Catholic, and half belong to the four NCCP member churches - 
the Church of Pakistan, the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan, the Salvation 
Army and the Association of Reformed Presbyterian Churches.) 
 
    Azariahs, speaking from Lahore, close to the Indian border, told ENI on 
Oct. 13: "There have been no protests, no agitation.  Everything is normal 
here.  My grandson went to his school and my wife went to office for work." 
 
    Archbishop Trindade said he found "everything normal" when he attended 
a confirmation ceremony in a remote village within 24 hours of the army 
coup. "The fact that there are no protests at all shows that how unpopular 
the [Sharif] government was." 
 
    A prominent Christian activist, Cecil Chaudhry, said, "Everybody knew 
it was coming.  We are only happy about it."  Chaudhry is a Roman Catholic 
and the secretary of the National Christian Action Forum, an ecumenical 
body which is supported by CBCP and NCCP and  gives public expression to 
the concerns of Christians. 
 
    Asked by ENI to comment on the army's removal of the government, 
Colonel Shaw Clifton, Territorial Commander of the 80,000-member Salvation 
Army in Pakistan, said that his organization "does not comment on political 
matters as a policy." 
 
    However he added that the Salvation Army "continues to carry on its 
ministry normally, without any problem." 
 
    Elaborating on his "joy" at the overthrow of the Sharif government, 
Chaudhry said, "People were fed up with the government and that the 
ordinary people were worst hit."  In recent months the country had 
experienced "total economic collapse," with the closure of businesses, high 
inflation, price rises by public utilities, and growing corruption and 
sectarian violence.  "People were craving for relief," Chaudhry told ENI. 
"The army was only fulfilling the aspirations of the people." 
 
    The Sharif government,  with a two-thirds majority in the 217-member 
National Assembly had "systematically silenced every democratic institution 
in  Pakistan during the last two years," he said.  Chaudhry cited in 
particular the 13th Amendment which was enacted last year, removing the 
federal president's emergency power to dismiss an elected government. 
 
    With no other authority able "to check the power-hungry prime 
minister," Chaudhry said, "the army has saved the nation." 
 
    The church leaders were speaking to ENI shortly before the new military 
government declared a state of emergency and suspended the National 
Assembly early on Oct. 15.  A BBC news report said this amounted to an 
imposition of military law. 
 
    "It [the army coup] has happened. We are watching the next step," said 
Azariahs. 
 
    Archbishop Trindade voiced similar hesitations: "About the future, I 
cannot say anything." 
 
    "Restoration of democracy is a must," Chaudhry said. 
 
    Military coups in 1958 and in 1977 resulted in the long-standing 
suspension of democracy in Pakistan, which became independent in 1947, 
following the end of British colonial rule and the 
partition of the Indian subcontinent. 

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