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Note #6192 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

polls
15-September-2000
00330

Pakistan's Christians demand an end to ‘religious apartheid' at polls

by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International

NEW DELHI -- Christians in Pakistan are waging a vigorous campaign against
the Separate Electorate System (SES) which many church members believe
imposes a form of religious apartheid on elections in the mainly Muslim
nation.
	The election system, they claim, marginalizes them and other religious
minorities by allowing to vote only for candidates of their own faith.
	Protestant and Catholic leaders are particularly concerned about proposals,
known as the "Plan 2000" and the "Devolution Plan," which have been drawn up
by the government of Pakistan and will allow elections on a non-party basis
for local governing bodies at village level.
	While the church leaders do not condemn the main measures of the devolution
plan, they claim that because it retains the SES, which the government had
promised to abolish, it is a "counterfeit to basic democracy."
	The religious leaders made their criticisms in a statement released at a
press conference on Sept. 5 in Multan, in Punjab province.
	Bishop Victor John Mal, of the Church of Pakistan, said that the churches'
rejection of the Devolution Plan was "prompted by government's decision to
continue with the separate [religion-based] electorate" within village
elections. The proposals were announced by the country's leader, General
Pervez Musharraf, on Aug. 14, the 53rd anniversary of the Pakistan's
independence.
	"So far nothing has done to redress our grievance. So, we keep protesting,"
Bishop Mal told ENI in a telephone interview.
	The press conference was part of the ecumenical campaign led by Christian
Organizations for Social Action (COSAP), which are demanding the abolition
of the SES.
	Churches throughout Pakistan observed Sunday, Sept. 3 as a "day of prayer"
for the abolition of SES and "for courage to fight religious apartheid
peacefully and non-violently."
	The SES was introduced in 1979 by the military government of General Zia-ul
Haq. Initially it applied to local elections (village and municipal), but in
1985 it was extended to provincial and national elections.
	According to the system, Christian and other minorities -- Hindu, Parsee
and Buddhist -- are confined to separate electorates in which they are
allowed only to choose from among candidates belonging to their own
religion. They claim that SES makes their votes "irrelevant." Technically
Muslims also come under the SES. But since they are the overwhelming
majority, it makes little difference to them.
	About 96 per cent of Pakistan's 140 million inhabitants are Muslim. Of the
217 seats in Pakistan's National Assembly, ten are reserved for religious
minorities (four for Christians, four for Hindus and two for others).
	Churches are particularly concerned about the SES because General Musharraf
promised, after coming to power last year, to abolish it.
	David Elisha, a Christian layman and secretary general of the Minority
Advisory Council of Punjab, a government agency, recently resigned in
protest at the government's failure to abolish the SES. In his resignation
letter of Aug. 22, Elisha pointed out that the council, set up in February,
had "demanded [an] end to electoral inequality and discrimination by burying
the ‘mother' of all discriminatory laws -- the separate electorate," which
he described as a form of "religious apartheid."
	The continuation of the "universally discredited" SES was "a resounding
slap in the face of not only of non-Muslim Pakistanis, but of all
progressive forces," he said. "This heavy-handedness leaves me no choice but
to dissociate myself from oppressive forces that seek to shackle non-Muslim
Pakistanis in continued servility and inferiority on account of their
faith."
	On Aug.14, only hours before General Musharraf unveiled his Devolution
Plan, Derrick Cyprian, a Roman Catholic and federal minister for minority
affairs in the  Musharraf government, also resigned.
	Although it was officially announced that Cyprian resigned for "personal"
reasons, Peter Jacob, co-ordinator of the COSAP campaign, told ENI that the
resignation of Cyprian, who had previously assured Christian delegations
that SES would be abolished, was linked to his "opposition to the
continuation of the separate electorate."
	General Musharraf said in his Independence Day speech: "For the minorities,
the system of separate electorate will continue. This, I feel, is in their
interest since no member of the minority community would otherwise be
elected."
	But Jacob, who is also the executive secretary of Pakistan's Catholic
bishops' Justice and Peace Commission, said that Christians, other
minorities and human rights activists did not agree. He said that on Aug. 2
COSAP had submitted a memorandum to General Musharraf -- with the signatures
of 200,000 Christians, Hindus and Muslims -- demanding the restoration of a
joint or common electorate.
	Jacob added that General Musharraf had assured a delegation of Protestant,
Catholic and other minority religion leaders in February that his government
would abolish the SES.
	Victor Azariah, general secretary of National Council of Churches of
Pakistan (NCCP), told ENI: "There are no two opinions on the need to abolish
the separate electorate to ensure equal rights to minorities in Pakistan." 
The NCCP is a forum of mainstream Protestant churches, including the
Protestant Church of Pakistan, Presbyterian Church, the Salvation Army and
Association of Reformed Presbyterian Churches.
	Azariah said that because of the SES "Christians have been marginalized. We
are treated as second-grade citizens with no right to join political parties
or to talk about national issues or share power.
	"Christians can never come up in public life under this system," Azariah
said.
	Bishop Mal told ENI that as the separate electorate was now deeply
entrenched in the political system, it was going to be "very difficult" to
get rid of it. Although it had been created by a military regime, political
parties that had won government since its implementation had "not bothered
[to] undo it."
	Jacob said that the Musharraf government was being pressured by the Islamic
lobby to ignore the "Christian cry for justice and equal rights."

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