No kidding. “Government does nothing to stop violence against Pakistan’s minorities,” by Qaiser Felix for AsiaNews, May 6:
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Violence against religious minorities is commonplace in Pakistan, one of 13 countries named by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom where the government condones or supports such behaviour.
This year “has seen the largely unchecked growth in the power and reach of religiously-motivated extremist groups whose members are engaged in violence in Pakistan and abroad, with Pakistani authorities ceding effective control to armed insurgents espousing a radical Islam ideology,” the 2009 report stated. Recent events in the Swat Valley confirm the situation. […]
In the meantime Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti reiterated his government’s commitment to ensure the safety of minorities in the country. “The present government believes in the principles of tolerance, human equality and peaceful co-existence,” the minister said.
Bhatti, a Catholic, slammed demands by the Taliban that non-Muslims pay the Jizia, or poll tax, saying that religious minorities are not conquered native communities but sons of the same soil and rightful citizens of Pakistan.
Not under sharia. Qur’an 9:29 commands: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
Explaining that the situation would improve the minister said that Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan guarantees that “every citizen shall have the right to profess, practise and propagate his religion” without discrimination.
But here’s the problem: The advance of the Taliban, and the disastrous precedent set by Pakistan’s allowing sharia law in exchange for peace (and that sure worked out well) threaten to pull the plug entirely on the country’s constitution, which is essentially a dead document as long as the government is unwilling or unable to uphold it.