- Pakistan needs to pay attention to its own minorities
While Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has rightly pointed out the true face of India, and the mistreatment there of Muslims, who are in a minority there, a recent study of Pakistan’s own minorities has concluded that Pakistan’s own minorities need access to education and effective political participation if they are to be enabled to lift themselves out of poverty. The study, ‘Index of Religious Diversity and Inclusion’ makes an additional point that is often overlooked: there is more than one minority, and the various minorities face varied problems, which are not amenable to a one-size-fits-all solution.
However, too great an emphasis on diversity, especially by the government, will create its own problems. One of the problems is a carryover from a very distant past, that of equality in drinking water. It should be recalled that Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman who fled the country after having her blasphemy death sentence overturned by the Supreme Court, got into trouble with her Muslim neighbours because of a common drinking vessel. This is symbolic of the whole untouchability issue. Because it is an inheritance from Hinduism, the issue affects Hindus as well. The report provides support to those who feel that while the minorities and the government need to take action, it is the Muslim majority that not only bears responsibility for the treatment of minorities, but also has to carry out the greatest changes in attitude among its members.
It is true that the minorities in Pakistan are better off than they are in India. However, that is not a standard to judge by. The Muslim minority in India is being massacred? Does that mean there should be vengeance wreaked on innocent Hindus in Pakistan? Is there any credit to be claimed in refraining from bestiality? Muslims happen to belong to a religion which has not just enjoined tolerance of other religions, but dignified treatment of minorities. The ideal to be aspired to is some distance away, and until it is achieved, there is to be no call for self-satisfaction of any kind, let alone how other countries behave.
