No Non-Muslim Can Becomes Prime Minster Of Pakistan Under the New Constitutional Amendment

By Aftab Alexander Mughal

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari on April 19 signed the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill to make it part of the Constitution which restores the 1973 Constitution by cleansing it of all the dictatorial amendments. Under article 91(3) of the constitutional amendment no non-Muslim can become prime minister of the country. The article states: "After the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, the National Assembly shall, to the exclusion of any other business, proceed to elect without debate one of its Muslim members to be the Prime Minister." Furthermore, the constitution already bars non Muslims to contest election for president of the country.

A Parliamentary Constitutional Reforms Committee (PCRC) was set up in June 2009, composed of 27 cross-party parliamentarians, to review the constitution. Ironically, the committee did not have a single non-Muslim member. On April 1, Mian Raza Rabbani presented the draft of the Committee in the National Assembly (lower house of the parliament) which passed it on April 7 and then Senate (upper house of the parliament) passed it on April 15. Although the parliament claims that the amendment undo undemocratic amendments pushed through by military dictators Zia-ul-Haq (who ruled the country from 1977 to 1988) and Pervez Musharraf (1999 to 2009), controversial Islamic provisions and constitution’s Islamic identity remain unchanged especial blasphemy laws which have been repeatedly used against religious minorities and liberal Muslims. 

“It is blatantly discriminatory, against the non-Muslim citizens of the country. You cannot have democracy until you separate state from religion,” Cecil Chudhary, a prominent Christian leader said. He added that it is of interest to know that when Pakistan came into being, 15 percent of the officers in Pakistan Air Force were Christians.

“Gen Zia exploited religion in the most cynical and destructive way possible to prolong his hold on power. Parliament must undo the legacy of Gen Zia, and to do so it must re-examine the Hudood and blasphemy laws too,” daily Dawn, an English language Pakistani newspaper, says on April 10, 2010.

A slight change has been proposed in the Objectives Resolution where the minorities have been given right to freely profess and practice their religions. Article 20 of the Constitution, which talks of freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions, also says that every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion; and every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institution.

Asma Jahangir, chairperson of Human rights Commission of Pakistan, says, “In reality, Pakistan’s disempowered religious minorities can never even dream of reaching such pinnacles of power, but for the constitution to brazenly discriminate against them is indefensible. Non-Muslims may contest elections to the NA and command a majority of votes, but cannot be elected as prime minister. Consequently, only Muslims will be able to be parliamentary leaders. Our political leadership must make up its mind: either it commits itself to non-discriminatory policies on minorities or confesses to bigotry.”

Provided by our friends at Minorities Concern of Pakistan