Correspondent

LONDON, June 3: Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir Ali, who was born and raised in Karachi and worked as a priest and bishop in Pakistan, has painted a grim picture of the state of minorities in his country in an article published in the Sunday Telegraph with the headline, Pakistan is at a highly dangerous crossroads.

According to the bishop, the non-Muslim minorities, Christians, Hindus, Parsis and others, are both helpless onlookers and often victims of the escalating extremism in the country.

“Their treatment is an important barometer of the direction Pakistan may be taking.” In recent months, he says, various human rights organisations have reported a surge of arrests of Christians on charges of blasphemy.

“Numerous Christians and others have been victimised by the blasphemy law and it has also been widely used to silence opposition, prevent free speech and to settle scores.

“But why should being an Islamic state necessarily involve having such a draconian law? All of this from a government that has frequently signalled its unhappiness with the law as it stands, has sought to repeal it and tried to reduce its impact. Its present stance looks very much like an appeasement of the mullahs.

“Such a perception is reinforced when we consider another development: the introduction in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, of a bill punishing apostasy from Islam by death (for males) or life imprisonment (for females). It is true that such a punishment exists in mediaeval codifications of the Shariah, but there is nothing about it in the Koran, and the instances given in the Sunnah have been questioned by scholars.”

The article said: “Pakistan is at a crossroads: it can take the path of being a sectarian, fundamentalist state ruled by clerics, or it can become an enlightened, moderate country, informed by the best traditions of Islam, tolerant of other faiths and open to change. Procrastination is not an option.

“I have always sought the welfare of the whole nation and not just the Christian community.’’