COVID-19: Minority communities in Pakistan alleges discrimination by Imran Khan govt

Aamir Gill, a cleaner and member of the country’s Christian underclass, told AFP: "We were already untouchables and now due to corona, rich people think the poor might bring it into their homes."

The community celebrated Easter on Sunday and the Christian people observed it amid crisis.

Gill lives in Islamabad’s Christian slums in a cramped one-room home with his family of four.

“My kids asked me for new Easter dresses and shoes but I have told them we are not going to have Easter this year," he told the news agency.

The Christian community comprises of two percent of the population in the Islamic nation.

Their worsening plight means the Easter — which normally marks rebirth, springtime and abundance — will be filled with “depression and despair”, Haroon Ashraf told AFP.

“The coronavirus has snatched away the bit of bread we had,” said the 25-year-old, who lost his restaurant job when the virus hit.

“In this crisis, where they are confined to crowded spaces with few resources, they cannot be left to face a cruel choice between starvation and infection,” Omar Waraich, deputy regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International, told AFP.

Pakistan has seen significant rise in the number of COVID-19 patients. It is currently 5716. 96 people have died so far.

An article published on Dawn News, recently titled as 'Forced Conversions', read: " OVER the years, the laws applicable to the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan have shifted from being neutral to blatantly discriminatory — from electoral laws, family laws, law on evidence, Hudood laws, redistribution of income through Zakat and Ushr, trust and evacuee property laws, domicile and nationality, to offences against religion."

The article pointed out that women, belonging to the religious minority community, face discrimination.

" The discrimination against women belonging to religious minority groups is worse; they become victims of rape, abduction, forced marriage and forced conversion. That it is largely underage girls who are ‘converting’ to Islam speaks volumes of the vulnerability of the converts, and the motivation of those behind the conversion," read the article.

The article is written by  Sulema Jahangir, a board member, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, an advocate of the high courts, Pakistan, and a solicitor of the senior courts of England and Wales. 

She wrote: "Pakistan has failed to comply with its international obligations to protect non-Muslim women and girls from exploitation by powerful groups and criminal elements. Even worse is the psychological impact on families of minorities who worry when their daughters venture out, and the culture of intolerance that is promoted when leaders like Mian Mithu celebrate another ‘conversion’ and marriage as a victory for the Muslim faith in the local community."

Plight of Hindus:

When the world is busy fighting COVID-19 outbreak, radical Islamists in Pakistan continued to convert by force, the latest being a Hindu national in Karachi city.

He has been identified as Basant Kudar.

In a video, which has surfaced online, Basant’s brother revealed that Basant and his mother were attacked and beaten up by some local molvis (Muslim priests).

"Basant was allegedly forced to convert from Hinduism to Islam by the Molvis," sources said.

"He was threatened that if he wants to live in Pakistan then should convert, or else they will kill them all," sources added.

Several girls, belonging to the minority communities like Sikhs and Hindus, have been converted to Islam forcefully and even married to Muslim men in recent times.

On 19 February, a Pakistani court declared invalid the marriage of the Muslim man, Raza Solangi to the Hindu girl Mehak because she was a minor. It was also claimed during the hearing that the girl had converted to Islam and married the man out of her own choice, reported Sputnik.