The BBC started its international news broadcast on December 24, with a report on the suffering of Christian Pakistanis in Jaranwala. Viewed in the background of the principled stand of Christians in Bethlehem – who suspended usual festivities associated with Christmas – this incident has become a national shame for Pakistan. We cannot absolve ourselves for providing them grounds to embarrass us.
It is the failure of state prosecution, law enforcement, judiciary and lack of political will to prosecute those criminals responsible for the August 16 act in Jaranwala, near Faisalabad. The culprits should have been given strict exemplary punishments, which could have served as deterrence. While the caretaker government initially showed interest in tackling the problem, what followed later was insufficient.
Such criminal acts of vandalism against citizens of Pakistan, who practice Christianity, has no place in either Islam or Jinnah’s Pakistan. They will keep on occurring unless the state reverts back to the promise made by the Quaid in his August 11 address. Extremism should have no space in this country.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
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