Chief Justice of Pakistan wins International Award for complicity in persecution!

Video of protestors confrontation at the awards ceremony

The British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) lent its support to protests today against the giving of a world-class award to the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court,  Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.  The International  Council of Jurists (IJC) is giving him the award today in London.  The BPCA argues that giving such an award to a man who has just passed down cases more in accord with Sharia law than international standards of justice is a slap in the face of the Chief Justice’s recent victims, Hindu women whose kidnap, rape and forced conversion and marriage Chaudhry upheld.  In addition, he dismissed representations by the leaders of the Hindu community seeking protection for their vulnerable girls.  

Mr Wilson Chowdhury, chairman of the BPCA, said ‘This is yet another case illustrating the contempt for the rights of minorities in Pakistan.  One girl, Rinkel Kumari, cried for her parents  in court and clearly stated she had been forced against her will to marry a Muslim boy, but the Chief Justice ignored her clear testimony and distress and handed her to her ‘husband’.  It is an insult to the minorities of Pakistan these international jurists persist in giving such an award to a man who makes himself and the state of Pakistan so complicit in the persecution of minorities.  The case sets another precedent, and the fact that this award is not being rescinded is another precedent.  The IJC is in effect making itself complicit and validating the systematic kidnap, rape, forced marriage and conversion of vulnerable minorities in Pakistan.’


He went on to add 'Should someone still be given a community award for previous good actions when they have recently also rioted and vandalized property?  The same principle applies here.  The IJC is spectacularly proving the old adage that the law is an ass - and is discrediting itself in the process.'

Other commitments prevented BPCA representatives joining in the protest.   The BPCA counters assertions that such girls voluntarily convert to Islam and sometimes say so by noting that it is routine in such cases for the kidnappers to threaten to kill their families or bring false blasphemy charges against them if the girls do not say they have married and converted voluntarily.