Ahmadi voters face discrimination
Maqbool Ahmad Mubasher
One is unable to settle on what to do or articulate about the brains of our brainless government departments. There is a huge list of actions which nobody can understand or comprehend. One example of its kind is the decision of Election Commission to issue a separate list of Ahmadi voters for the coming election.
One list includes Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Parsis and Zartashts etc while a second list is created only for Ahmadi voters, which is named as list of non-Muslim voters. So if the second list is of non-Muslim voters, which only includes Ahmadis, the first list seems to be the list of Muslim voters including Christians, Hindus, Parsis etc. Any logic or explanation from the Election Commission?
The Government took a very wise, bold and democratic step by saying that all Pakistanis will be allowed to vote on the joint electorate basis and will be allowed to participate in the election on all general seats irrespective of the religion, then why the need of second list was felt? And who are the characters behind this drama that destroyed the true essence of joint electorate.
Why only Ahmadis are in the non-Muslim list and all others are in the Muslim list?
Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a man of great vision, in his 11 August 1947 speech said that every one will be free to practice his religion and at the same time he will enjoy equal rights as citizen of Pakistan. Please don’t break the promise of father of the nation for petty benefits.
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) when he came to Madina, people of different religions were living there eg Jews, Christians, idolaters. He (PBUH) made them united with an agreement, named as Meesaq-e-Madina or Constitution. This agreement is printed in the books of famous historian Ibn-e-Hasham and Ibn-e-Ishaque. The agreement includes six parties and the very first paragraph says that all the six groups will be treated as one party for the management of affairs of Madina. Many of the historians say that this agreement is world’s first written constitution which provides complete code of life for the citizens of any state and it was only this agreement which ensured mutual cooperation and equal rights for all the citizens of Madina. Our rulers should learn lessons from this and same should be applied to all the citizens of Pakistan.
Government should either withdraw the notification or should at least combine both the lists and it should be the list of all the voters irrespective of religion. We have few days in hand and a prompt action will ensure the participation of more than 2.5 million Ahmadi voters living across the country, who have jointly decided not to participate in the election because of this humiliating discrimination.
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