After Imran Khan’s fifty minute speech about Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly, a person who has no political and historical knowledge of the past and the present world, would indeed be mesmerized by Imran’s theatrical performance. In the reality of things, however, this is really an unachievable goal for the Pakistani establishment.
Being an ‘Islamic Republic’, the constitution of Pakistan (yes, they have one!) prohibits a non-Muslim from either becoming the Prime Minister or the President of the country. To put it simply, a Muslim majority cannot be led by a non-Muslim in Pakistan. This is in accordance with Sharia law. It was on this very notion that the partition of India was demanded and a subsequent Muslim majority Pakistan came into being.
The National Assembly of Pakistan has rejected a bill to amend the Pakistani constitution, which proposed to allow non-Muslims to contest for the post of Prime Minister and the office of the President. Naveed Aamir Jeeva, a lawmaker and a Christian belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) introduced the bill in the National Assembly, The News International reported. The bill was rejected by a voice vote in which the majority voted ‘against’.
Not that any of us expected any better from an Islamist state that Pakistan is, but such a move should definitely be an eye-opener for the odd nations that continue to support Pakistan. Any sane democratic nation of the world would not tolerate this blatant violation of democratic rights of non-Muslims in Pakistan. How can a nation prohibit its citizens from rising to the highest offices? Although we all know that the office of the Prime Minister or President are not the highest offices in Pakistan, yet, how can a state deny this right to its genuine citizens? We are also aware of the farce of a democracy that the Islamist establishment of Pakistan hides under. No non muslim can be president or PM in Pakistan.
While Pakistan keeps pontificating before the world on how India should treat its minorities, its pretence is not hidden from anyone. The Islamic republic under Imran Khan has often attacked India with unverified facts and outright lies. Pakistan has been selling an alarmist perception of the state of minorities in India, backed by India’s left-liberals who are an undisputed front for Islamism. While they continue to preach to India about how a democracy must and should function, Pak continues to indulge in the most gruesome anti-democratic activities in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. The lives of Ahmaddiya Muslims are under constant threat from the Pakistani state and the Islamist pets it trains, so much so, that Ahmaddiyas are not even considered Muslims by law! Such is the plight of Ahmaddiyas in Pakistan that the Nobel Prize winner, Abdus Salam, a renowned Physicist was forced to flee the rabid nation.
Imran Khan, who often invokes genocide, and persecution of minorities in India, shamelessly ignores his own backyard. During partition, Pakistan had a non-Muslim population of around 23 per cent. Presently, a minuscule population of 2 per cent non-Muslims remain. Did the others simply vanish in the air, or were they subjected to an all out systematic state sponsored persecution and forced conversions? The answer is very obvious.
The very idea of Pakistan is based on Islamist extremism and religious superiority, far from cure. For one to even expect a state like Pakistan to have the minimum modicum of democratic decency would only reflect on the poor understanding of the country and its Jihadi mind-set. We know Imran Khan wouldn’t bat an eye to the plight of his own citizens, but nevertheless, he must practice what he preaches.