DATE=5/26/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N / PAKISTAN / AHMADIS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262855
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Representatives of the Ahmadis Muslim group
are charging that Pakistan's government routinely
persecutes members of the Ahmadi branch of Islam. And
they have appealed to the United Nations to pressure
Pakistan to restore full rights to members of the
group. Lisa Schlein reports the Ahmadis made their
appeal to a U-N committee on minorities, which has
just ended a week-long meeting in Geneva.
TEXT: The Ahmadis have about 40-million adherents in
60 countries. Ahmadi representatives say their
numbers have declined sharply in Pakistan since
successive governments began persecuting them in 1974.
The president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in
Britain, Iftikar Ayaz, says Ahmadis in Pakistan suffer
job discrimination, have difficulty entering
university, and have no right to vote.
Mr. Ayaz says the Pakistani government forbids the
Ahmadis to practice the Islamic faith. He says even
Ahmadis who greet each other in the Islamic way can be
prosecuted under Pakistan's blasphemy law. And he
says more than two-thousand Ahmadis are in Pakistani
prisons on charges of blasphemy.
/// AYAZ ACT ONE ///
Some of them are still in prison. They have
been in prison sentenced under the blasphemy law
for the past 16, 17 years. And, they have been
told they will be executed, they will be hanged.
And, the poor fellows, you can imagine what sort
of stress and pain and suffering they are living
under in these prisons -- you know, the black
holes and the black cells.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Ayaz says Pakistan's blasphemy law also has been
used to prosecute Christians and other non-Muslim
groups. He says people sometimes are unjustly accused
of blasphemy by someone who may have a grudge or a
political motive.
He says the new military president of Pakistan
promised to change the law to make sure charges of
blasphemy were backed by evidence. But Mr. Ayaz
charges that the president and Pakistan's minister for
religious affairs gave into pressure from hard-line
clergy and withdrew the proposal.
/// AYAZ ACT TWO ///
Since these blasphemy laws were targeted at the
Ahmadis in Pakistan, the government decided that
all blasphemy cases will be dealt with by the
anti-terrorist courts. Unfortunately, in these
courts, there are no facilities for defense,
and the victims are not even given the
opportunity to defend themselves.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Ayaz says the persecution of Ahmadis has been
mentioned in U-N human rights reports and the United
Nations has made statements to support the cause of
the Ahmadis. He says a number of countries also have
spoken out in support of the group.
But he says that, in general, the world pays scant
attention to the situation. And he calls on the
United Nations to bring what he calls its "moral
authority and pressure" on Pakistan to repeal the
blasphemy law.
In a statement to the U-N Committee on Minorities, a
Pakistani representative notes the so-called blasphemy
law is not discriminatory, and offers equal protection
to all religions. He tells V-O-A that he cannot
comment on the charges made by the Ahmadis for what he
calls legal reasons. (Signed)
NEB/LS/JWH/WTW
26-May-2000 14:07 PM EDT (26-May-2000 1807 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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