Persecution of Religious Minorities: Pakistan

Fiona Bruce Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2016 Westminster Hall

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh), who made an excellent speech.

The Ahmadis have suffered greatly and have been subject to numerous attacks, even during Friday prayers. The vicious brutality of those attacks is magnified by the Ahmadis’ belief in love for all and hatred for none. How can we ensure that Pakistan’s beleaguered minorities receive the help they desperately need? One way is for Members to read and send to those in authority the report that the all-party group on international religious freedom or belief will publish shortly.

Just a few weeks ago, the APPG took evidence in a number of hearings that revealed the systematic and widespread persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan. It heard harrowing personal accounts from Christians, Ahmadis and others who have watched loved ones murdered in a culture of impunity. It heard the story of Pakistan’s last remaining Jew and was moved by the bravery and courage of so many in the minority communities. Lord Alton of Liverpool, who chaired those hearings, said:

“We hope that the Report which will emerge from this evidence will force our policy makers, along with those of other Governments, to reassess the way in which we engage with Pakistan.”

The report, which will collate the evidence gathered in those hearings, will be launched in Parliament shortly and sent to the relevant Government bodies, parliamentarians and members of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, which now operates in nearly 60 countries. Recommendations will be sent to the Home Office officials in charge of setting country guidance—I am glad to say that they attended the hearings—and those who look at options for asylum seekers. We hope the report will bring about tangible change in the UNHCR and to the Home Office’s approach to the minorities that face persecution in Pakistan and seek asylum. The report will show that, in today’s Pakistan, minorities—including Ahmadis, Sikhs, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims from the Shi’a tradition—face relentless violence, profound discrimination and, in some cases, outright persecution.

Hon. Members may be interested, and I hope touched, to know that the brother of Shahbaz Bhatti—Pakistan’s outstanding Minister for minorities, who was murdered four years ago—spoke in this very room on this subject, only a few weeks ago. Dr Paul Bhatti, a medical doctor, said,

“Since almost the last two decades Pakistan has been facing a series of challenges with religious discrimination and persecution, sectarian violence, economic crisis, political instability and terrorism. Despite anti-terrorism reforms, promotion of religious freedom, support of the international community, and precious sacrifices that have been made”—

not least by his brother, who spent 28 years of his life promoting interfaith community relations—

“we still face the cruel and harsh realities of violence against the weak and voiceless people of our community…We want this Pakistan, without any discrimination among people of diverse faiths, where weak and oppressed feel safe and respected: as the father of our nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah said, we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state. This is the path we are following indicated by Shahbaz to see our beloved country where there’s no discrimination between Majority and religious minorities (Shiites, Sufi Muslims, Isma’ili, Ahmadis, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Baha’i). Each of us is on a road, a religious path to a spiritual destination, a place of consequences and accountability for our choices and actions.”

He is committed, as are many in this place and across the world, to ensuring that Pakistan enjoys peace and stability. He stated in this room:

“I am convinced that religious freedom and education together can be the solution in the actualization of world peace.”

Dr Bhatti’s brother, a Minister in the Pakistani Government, was gunned down. In the hearings that were held a few weeks ago in this place, Members of Parliament heard of the burning alive of a Christian couple in an industrial kiln by a mob in Pakistan. The mob allegedly broke their legs. Rumours had circulated that they had burned verses from the Koran. An NBC News report states:

“Their legs were also broken so they couldn’t run away. ‘They picked them up by their arms and legs and held them over the brick furnace until their clothes caught fire… And then they threw them inside the furnace.’ Bibi, a mother…was four months pregnant”.

Their children were forced to watch. If almost five years after the death of Shahbaz Bhatti the perpetrators have still not been brought to justice, what chance is there that the killers of those two loving parents will be brought to justice? It is right that we cry out in this place today on their behalf and on the behalf of so many others who have suffered.

I turn now to the particular suffering of women of minority faith groups. Much of the rest of my speech will dwell on this topic, because it is important that we, as a Parliament, take note of the issue when the Government proclaim as a priority the promotion of the welfare and wellbeing of women and girls across the globe. It is a genuine priority of the Secretary of State for International Development, and I pay tribute to her personal work in leading the charge to increase support for women and girls in so many countries around the world. Following this debate, I hope that the UK Government and those responsible for disseminating aid in Pakistan will pay particular attention to the plight of women and girls in religious minorities, because they are doubly at risk of discrimination, regardless of the faith they adhere to. They risk systematic abduction, extortion, hijacking, being held for ransom, trafficking, rape, forced marriage, forced conversions, and allegations of blasphemy.

Women and girls face discrimination and marginalisation as it is, but they are subject to further targeting if they are from a minority group. Women are treated as second class, but if they come from a minority group, they are third class citizens. For example, Hindu girls in Sindh and Christian girls in Punjab are abducted, raped, or forced to convert to Islam in the face of extreme pressure, including threats to them and their families. The majority of Christian women in Pakistan are illiterate and hold menial jobs, working in factories or as domestic servants, and face a constant risk of sexual harassment, physical abuse, forced conversion or even death. The Asian Human Rights Commission stated in its report of December 2012 that

“on average some 700 Christian and 300 Hindu girls are forcibly converted to Islam each year…notably in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.”

It is interesting that an independent survey in Pakistan cited religious extremism as the greatest threat to the country. District minority committees have failed to review matters, such as personal laws and rules, for minority women’s rights.

While the police are at times complicit in fulfilling the wishes of the local elite, who may be in collusion with extremists, organisations that submitted evidence to the report stated that police in all provinces are gender-blind in cases of forced conversion and marriage. They can often effectively be complicit in such activities, nullifying women’s previous non-Islamic marriages and recognising their forced marriages instead. In cases of sexual assault, rape, and sexual violence, they do not conduct proper investigations and minority women can be re-victimised because police take bribes and do not adequately protect minority women. All of that has been reported to us.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that Christians do not feel safe going to police stations when they have problems relating to unjust blasphemy charges. In October 2015, three Muslim men broke into a deaf Christian woman’s home in Kasur in Pakistan, taking her turns to rape her while the men of the family were at work. Despite such a crime, the lawyer who is defending the woman admits the difficulty of getting the case to court to punish the perpetrators.

The implementation of the Hudood ordinances, laws enacted in 1979 as part of the Islamisation process, has had seriously damaging consequences for all sections of Pakistani society, but women in religious minorities have been particularly targeted and victimised as a result. Notwithstanding the state’s commitment to the non-imposition of an exclusively Islamic code on non-Muslims, the ordinances for the most part control the activities of non-Muslims. Religious minorities remain liable to suffer punishments as gross as physical amputations and whipping for various offences such as theft, and whipping or even death for accusations of adultery.

Christian women, like other minorities, face persecution and discrimination simply because of their faith. The real and present dangers faced by women of non-Muslim faith are much direct and substantial. Hindu women also face difficulties, with key concerns being conversion to Islam, sexual abuse and forced marriage. Problems have increased in recent years, and the volunteer group REAL found that between 20 and 25 Hindu girls were forcibly converted every month. The greatest victims are the Dalits who are kidnapped or lured into conversion, sexually exploited and then abandoned. There is no legal mechanism for the Government to register the marriages of Hindus and Sikhs, causing women difficulties with inheritances, accessing health services, voting, obtaining a passport, and buying or selling property. It is even reported that Sikh families will marry off their daughters at extremely young ages simply to avoid them being abducted, raped or forced to convert.

Considering the risks women and girls from religious minorities face in Pakistan, we must ask what is being done to support them. As I said, they are not just second-class; they are third-class citizens. Taking into account the fact that Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of our bilateral aid, receiving some £1.17 billion in support from the UK between 2011 and 2015, and while recognising that the Secretary of State has given clear priority to support for women and girls across all countries to which the UK provides aid, we must ask whether our aid is being adequately used to support the women and girls who are being persecuted due to their faith. I urge Ministers to review how our aid is distributed in Pakistan to ensure that it does not facilitate further persecution of minority women, and in fact helps to foster an environment of respect, plurality and freedom for women and men of all religious denominations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Ellwood]

I will be very grateful to receive that; I thank the hon. Gentleman very much indeed for the offer.

In addition to the conversations that I have already mentioned, in August last year the Foreign Secretary expressed our concerns about religious freedom and the misuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. The misuse of those laws is at the core of what we are discussing here. Our concern is that sometimes judges are not willing to enforce these blasphemy laws because of concerns about their own safety. We need to encourage and further advance greater maturity of the justice system in Pakistan.

I have also impressed on the Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, Syed Abbas, the importance not only of respecting the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan but the importance of the Ahmadiyya, Shi’a, Hazara and Christian communities, many of which we have referred to in debates here in Westminster Hall and in the main Chamber.

We also work through the European Union to promote human rights overseas. For example, the EU preferential market access scheme has helped to incentivise progress on human rights in Pakistan. This has led to the creation of a cell to help with the implementation of international human rights obligations. Also, Pakistan has submitted overdue UN treaty reports and re-established a Government ministry specifically to lead on human rights. That is a very important and welcome development. This progress is encouraging, but we cannot be complacent. We recognise the need to maintain the pressure on the Government of Pakistan to honour their commitments to human rights, and we will continue to do that.

I turn now to some of the other matters that have been raised this afternoon. First, there is the issue of international aid. Aid is provided not on a national basis but on a federal basis, so we discuss these matters with the various chief ministers in Pakistan. As hon. Members know, the Foreign Office does not lead on aid, but I promise hon. Members that I will meet the relevant Minister in the Department for International Development to make sure that we can see that aid is being properly distributed in Pakistan.

Hon. Members will be aware that we have a proud legacy of making sure that aid goes to vulnerable people and is not somehow tied up in conditionality. The problem with placing conditions on the aid that we give is that we can end up denying it to the very vulnerable people whom we want to support. So we need to look at cognitive measures that will enhance and encourage change, but also recognise that the DFID contribution to Pakistan is immense. Indeed, I think that it is one of the highest aid contributions in the world.

[Fiona Bruce]

I fully accept what the Minister is saying about conditionality. The important issue that I ask him to raise with DFID Ministers is the fact that religious discrimination is a root cause of poverty, as we have demonstrated today in this Chamber. However, in my opinion, to date DFID Ministers have not sufficiently addressed this issue as a cause of poverty in the way that other issues have been addressed, for fear of appearing to discriminate. That is a hurdle in thinking that we need to overcome.

[Mr Ellwood]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about the criteria that must be met for aid to be advanced to a country. The development committee that focuses on these issues wrote the rules back in the 1950s, and the guidance on overseas development support was written in the aftermath of the second world war and designed to focus on poverty itself. We know today that instability is also directly linked to the cause of poverty, but the rules have not changed.

I have been encouraging change, and we are slowly moving in that direction. Those rules need to be updated and advanced, to recognise other ways of ensuring that poverty can be tackled, such as by providing stability and improved governance, so that people make better decisions to move their country forward and also alleviate the challenges of poverty.



A number of hon. Members spoke not only about Pakistan but about the wider issues. I think we spoke of those issues when we met the all-party group on the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Bulgaria was mentioned as well, which raises eyebrows. This is a country in Europe; it is part of the European Union. Why on earth are we seeing this sort of persecution in Bulgaria as well? I raised this issue with my right hon. Friend the Minister for Europe, and he is pursuing it from his angle. I will ask him to be in touch with the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden to provide an update of what is going on. However, I am aware that the Grand Mufti of Bulgaria is very influential in these circumstances. We need to work harder, particularly as Bulgaria is essentially part of the European community, to ensure that persecution of the Ahmadiyya community does not happen so close to the UK.

A couple of other countries were also mentioned at that meeting. For example, on Thailand we continue to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, not only on a wide range of refugee issues but on persecution as well. Again, I will write to hon. Members with more details of what is happening on that front. As I say, Thailand was raised at the all-party group meeting. So, finally, was Indonesia.

Our ambassador in Jakarta has discussed these issues, including the plight of the Ahmadiyya community, with the Minister of Religious Affairs, and has urged him and other community leaders to ensure that the right of individuals to practise freedom of religion and belief is respected, and indeed protected. I understand that a Bill is now going through that is based on the protection of religious and faith communities, and I hope that that will be a major advancement in Indonesia. However, we need to keep the pressure on and keep working on this issue.

To conclude, I once again thank the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden—