Well, if by street you mean a literal street then I am not very sure of it but there are an awful lot of Christians in Islamabad living on the fringes of Islamabad with only basic facilities and amenities. Water, electricity and drainage are not available and it is like living on the streets because they are living in subhuman conditions.
In this particular case it was reported that the government had demolished their houses leaving them homeless.
Some of these people are removed from certain areas because they have come under the capital development authority which wants to develop an extension of Islamabad and so they have been pushed into areas where there are no facilities.
Do you feel this type of removal occurs because they are Christians?
The Christians believe that is the case but the government will always have its own interpretation in the name of development. Always the argument comes up that they never owned the land because these were government lands that they were on and the government required these lands for different purposes.
Were you part of the Black Day protests?
No, because I wasn’t in the country at the time but I heard about them. This is the first time in the history of the country that the religious minorities and especially the Christians have come up with such strong action. It suggests how much they are disappointed, frustrated and dissatisfied with some of the things that are happening, particularly on the misuse of the blasphemy law which has led to religious conflict, the fight between the majority and the minority, and unconstitutional violence against minorities, especially the Christians. What happened recently in Faisalabad against the Christian families was also as a result of the blasphemy law.
I strongly believe as a Pakistani and as a Christian church leader that the time has come for the government to seriously reflect that they have not been able until now to control the misuse of the blasphemy law and it keeps increasing and increasing. Faisalabad is not the first case.
I do recognise the pressure on the government but it is also the responsibility of the government to see that if a law is being constantly abused and gives a bad reputation to the country and a particular faith – in this case the Muslims – then some alternatives have to be found.
