In an interview with the radio
station TWR, the British Pakistani Christian Association’s Wilson Chowdhry, discusses the possible future political instability in Pakistan and its
implications for Christians and other minorities.
Already existing tensions are
on the rise between the government, the judiciary and the powerful military
(including the notorious ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence and security service),
against a background of rumours of a possible coup by the ISI and the military.
Mr Choudhry expressed concern
that while an improvement in conditions for vulnerable minorities like
Christians was possible with some kind of regime change, the opposite was more
likely to happen, citing the example of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ where
increasingly intolerant Islamicist groups have taken over, resulting in gravely
deteriorating conditions. In addition, he said that general unrest of any sort
would provide a great opportunity for Islamic militants – or indeed, anyone with
a grudge – to attack Christians while the already weak forces of law and order
were otherwise occupied.
He also discussed the general
level of corruption in Pakistani society and especially politics. In the light
of this, he raised again the BPCA’s concern about the UK’s aid to Pakistan, in
particular in the area of education. He noted that a recent report by the US
Commission on International Religious Freedom on Pakistan’s education system
revealed significant prejudice and bias in textbooks against religious
minorities even in government run schools. In the light of this, the BPCA have
called for the government to introduce stringent safeguards so that the UK funds
granted for literacy campaigns are not used to spread intolerance.
Now, in the light of the
general corruption in Pakistan, the BPCA is going further and recommending that
the UK government send the aid through vetted and monitored NGO’s and charity’s
in partnership with the Pakistani government, saying that this will reduce the
level of money lost to corruption and help ensure that the money will be spent
in ways that promote standards that better represent the UK’s values of
tolerance and freedom and also the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices commitment
to counter the causes of terrorism.
I agree and there should be total tolerance between groups of religious authorities and spread justice,peace & harmoney in action.The
ReplyDeleteoffices of religious freedom could be the best
tools to enhance the preachings of brotherhood,
tolerance and humanity for the sake of peace.
Agnes