40 per cent Inflation drains the festive spirit of Ramadan, Holi and Lenten in Pakistan. The festival-time woes of Pakistan’s religious minorities go to underscore the larger, indeed systemic, discrimination and neglect, and wilful violence that the state condones by its bad governance … Dr Sakariya Kareem
Pakistan’s religious minorities are among the worst sufferers of the current economic slowdown that has compounded their existing discrimination and gruelling poverty, multiple human rights bodies, both domestic and global have complained.
The crises have hit the poor among Muslims and minorities alike. The struggle for their next meal renders irrelevant their ritual fasting during the ongoing Ramadan month for the Muslim majority and the Lenten Fast for the Catholics who form a minority. The two festivals coincide.
Holi, the festival of the minority Hindus was impacted by violence at several places in Sindh where most of them live. Islamist youths disrupted the festivities that include splashing of colour among the revellers. The provincial government denied incidents of violence after incidents, captured on cell phones went viral on social media.
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A report by the United Catholic Association (UCA) said none of the 10 Catholic families in a slum in Lahore city was observing the Lenten fast when Sister Rubi Munir visited them. “Most poor are not even sure about the second meal of the day,” she said.
“Thousands of poor Catholics across Pakistan are unable to observe their Lent traditions of abstention and day-long fasting as they struggle to survive amid severe inflation in a country hit by an economic crisis. “Poor people have hardly anything to eat. How can you expect them to fast for the entire day,” she asked.
Catholics in the Muslim-majority nation traditionally spend the whole day without food and drink from dawn to dusk for a month during the Lent period. They break the fast by eating in the evening just as Muslims do during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began on March 23 this year, the UCA said.
An economic crisis means less food for the poor. Sister Munir, usually tries to convince them to send their children to Sunday school. “However, this week she is spreading the word about free wheat flour that is being made available at government distribution points during the holy month of Ramadan in inflation-hit Pakistan.
A political and constitutional crisis has gripped the country since last April after former prime minister, Imran Khan, was ousted by a no-confidence vote. Pakistan desperately awaits the much-delayed loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would revive the stalled $6.5 billion bailout program for the cash-strapped, nuclear-armed country of 220 million people.
This February, the annual inflation on food shot up to more than 40 per cent. The higher taxes and fuel costs meant poor families like that of Kanwal Rashid, a Catholic, need to find extra work. “It is difficult to stand in long queues. It’s a painful process,” the UCA quoted her as saying.
The festival-time woes of Pakistan’s religious minorities go to underscore the larger, indeed systemic, discrimination and neglect, and wilful violence that the state condones through its bad governance.
In Lahore last week (end-March 2023), the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) issued the “Human Rights Observer 2023”, an annual factsheet which covers five key issues impacting religious minorities, i.e. 1) discrimination in the education system, 2) Prevalence of forced faith conversions, 3) Abuse of blasphemy laws, 4) Establishment of the National Commission for Minorities, and 5) Jail remissions for minority prisoners.
CSJ’s factsheet shows the increasing religious content in curriculum and textbooks and several perennial and new challenges in the education system during 2022.
The factsheet informs that at least 171 persons had been accused under the blasphemy laws, out of these over 65% of cases surfaced in Punjab province, followed by 19% in Sindh.
The highest number of victims (88) were Muslims, followed by 75 Ahmadis, four Christians, and two Hindus, while the religious identity of the two accused could not be ascertained. Four accused were extra-judicially killed, two in Punjab and one each in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2022, which brings the number of extra-judicial killings of the accused to 88 persons in total during the period from 1987 to 2022.
At least 2120 persons had been accused of committing blasphemy between 1987 and 2022. The trend witnessed an increase in the aggregate abuse of blasphemy laws in Punjab in the past 36 years, above 75%. However, 52% of the accused belonged to minorities despite their small ratio (3.52%) in the population of Pakistan.
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