Country Advice Pakistan – PAK35675 – Muslims – Liberal Muslims – Non–practicing Muslims – People’s Youth Organisation – laws – Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal 7 December 2009

Please provide information on the following:

1 The situation of non-believers in the major cities in Pakistan; blasphemy laws and their application.

A search of the available Tribunal resources has failed to provide statistical data on the number of non-believers in the major cities in Pakistan.

The US Department of State 2009 International Religious Freedom Report of 2009 indicates that the death penalty is applicable to those found guilty of defiling or its prophets:

Freedom of speech is subject to "reasonable" restrictions in the interest of the "glory of Islam." The consequences for contravening the country's blasphemy laws are death for defiling Islam or its prophets; life imprisonment for defiling, damaging, or desecrating the Qur'an; and 10 years' imprisonment for insulting another's religious feelings. Some individuals bring charges under these laws to settle personal scores or to intimidate vulnerable Muslims, sectarian opponents, and religious minorities. Under the Anti- Act, any action, including speech, intended to incite religious hatred is punishable by up to seven years' imprisonment. Under the act, bail is not to be granted if the judge has reasonable grounds to believe the accused is guilty; however, the bail provision of the law is selectively applied.

Any speech or conduct that injures another's religious feelings, including those of minority religious groups, is prohibited and punishable by imprisonment. In cases in which a minority group claimed its religious feelings were insulted, however, the blasphemy laws were rarely enforced, and cases were rarely brought to the legal system. A 2005 law requires that a senior police official investigate any blasphemy charge before a complaint is filed. According to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), this law was not uniformly enforced.1

However, there is no information in this report which indicates that a lax Muslim falls under this category:

There are no legal requirements for an individual to practice or affiliate nominally with a religious group (See Footnote 1)

The following article provides information on the case of a Muslim who belonged to a prominent humanist organisation and who in the course of teaching a class made controversial public comments for which he was arrested:

1 US Department of State 2009, International Religious Freedom Report – Pakistan, (Section II. Status of Government Respect for Religious Freedom. Legal/Policy/Framework.) 26 October – Attachment 1. 1 Blasphemy is a capital crime in this volatile Islamic nation … Accurate crime statistics are a low priority here, but the number of those imprisoned on blasphemy charges is estimated in the hundreds. Only the most sensational cases get much notice: when vigilantes murder the accused, or the bold judge who set him free. When a man is condemned to die if a few pages in the Koran are torn. When a newspaper is shut down after publishing a sacrilegious letter. Dr. Shaikh is charged under Provision 295-C of the law: the use of derogatory remarks about the holy Prophet Muhammad. Whether such an offense is intentional or not, the mandatory punishment is death. ''Please understand, I am a deeply religious man,'' Dr. Shaikh said recently, professing his Islamic faith through the tight wire mesh of a jail cell. A short, rumpled man, he had the weary look of someone trying to rub a disturbing dream from bleary eyes. ''I cannot even imagine blaspheming our holy Prophet, peace be upon him.'' Few Pakistanis have heard of Dr. Shaikh, but news of his woes has leapt the borders, flitting across the Internet. He is associated with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, which describes itself as an ''umbrella organization for humanist, rationalist, agnostic, skeptic, atheist and ethical culture groups around the world.'' In 1999, he gave a presentation at the World Humanist Congress.

Pakistan may have an ample supply of free thinkers, but free speakers have long been on the wane. Governments -- civilian or military -- tend to imprison opponents. Federal laws enforce a mix of mosque and state, and questions of religion are often presumed to have a single right answer, like arithmetic. ''Before saying anything in this country, you must always be aware of the forum, the place and the time,'' said , head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. ''If accused of blasphemy, you are in great difficulty. The mullahs are not known for their generosity. Even if exonerated, you will always be in danger.'' Dr. Shaikh was a member of peace and environmental groups)2.

Mr Shaikh was subsequently set free, following a campaign for his release - in this letter of 1 February 2004, he maintains that he is a

loyal and law- abiding Pakistani, Muslim by birth, a medical doctor and college teacher, I was an innocent victim sentenced to death on false and fabricated charges under the infamous Pakistani Islamic blasphemy law, 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code. I was convicted on mere suspicion, and trumped-up allegations of utterances I was supposed to have made at a lecture that did not actually take place. My accusers were mischievous fascist fundamentalist mullahs who did not hear or witness anything themselves. They were aided by Pakistan’s ultra-corrupt and high-handed Islamic Police. My lawyers were subjected to mafia-style harassment regarding their children; with the Pakistani Taliban demonstrating their power with verbal violence outside the trial court. 3

The following RRT Research Responses address related issues:

Agnosticism/Atheism RRT Country Research 2003, Research Response PAK16319, 5 December (Qs 1 and 3) Apostasy RRT Country Research 2007, Research Response PAK31648, 18 April (Q1-2 treatment of converts – state protection – Q3 blasphemy laws) Blasphemy laws RRT Country Research 2007, Research Response PAK31648, 18 April (Q3 converts)

2. Bearak, Barry 2001, ‘Death to Blasphemers: Islam’s grip on Pakistan’, The New York Times, 12 May- Attachment 2. 3 ‘From Younus Shaikh: Thank You!’ 2004, International Humanist and Ethical Union website, 1 February - http://www.iheu.org/node/1007 -Accessed 25 November 2009 – Attachment 3.

2 RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response PAK30768, 6 November (Q5 liberal Muslims – Q6 charges – NWFP) RRT Country Research 2005, Research Response PAK17182, 3 February (Q1) RRT Country Research 2000, Research Response PAK14388, 3 November (Q2 Ahmadis)

2. Please provide information on The People's Youth Organisation – its ideals, links to political parties, and the treatment of members/supporters.

This article of 27 December 2008 states that the People’s Youth Organisation is the youth branch of the current ruling party:

PPP [Pakistan People’s Party] activists here in a function held in connection with first death anniversary of late PPP chairperson called for investigation into the suicide bombing-cum-firing incident at Liaquat Bagh that took the life of the popular political leader of the country. The function was held under the auspices of People's Youth Organisation (PYO), youth wing of the party here at Press Club on Friday.4

Information on the PPP is contained in this analysis of the Political Handbook of the World of 2009:

People's Party (PPP). An avowedly Islamic socialist party founded in 1967 by , the PPP held a majority of seats in the National Assembly truncated by the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Officially credited with winning 155 of 200 assembly seats in the election of March 1977, it was the primary target of a postcoup decree in October that banned all groups whose ideology could be construed as prejudicial to national security. Bhutto was executed in April 1979, the party leadership being assumed by his widow and daughter, both of whom, after being under house arrest for several years, went into exile in London. After having briefly returned to Pakistan in July 1985 to preside over the burial of her brother, Shahnawaz, Benazir Bhutto again returned in April 1986. The PPP won a sizable plurality (92 of 205 contested seats) in the National Assembly election of November 1988, and Bhutto became prime minister. The party lost ministerial control with Bhutto's dismissal in August 1990; its legislative strength was subsequently cut by more than half in the election of October 24 and 27 (for which it joined with a number of smaller groups to campaign as the People's Democratic Alliance—PDA). It regained its plurality in the 1993 legislative poll, with Ms. Bhutto being reinstalled as prime minister. In December 1993 the PPP's Executive Council ousted Prime Minister Bhutto's mother, Begum , as party cochair. The action was the product of estrangement between the two over the political role of Benazir's brother, , who had returned from exile in November to take up a seat in the provincial legislature and who in March 1995 announced the formation of a breakaway faction of the PPP. Murtaza died in a firefight with gunmen in September 1996. Following the ouster of Prime Minister Bhutto in November, her husband, , was charged with complicity in the killing. The new PML-led government formed an “accountability” department to investigate the allegations and corruption in general, a principal target being the PPP leadership. Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto was meeting with leaders of smaller opposition parties, which ultimately led to the formation of the PAI alliance in February 1998. Earlier, at the end of 1996, allegations about the death of Murtaza Bhutto had led his widow, Ghinwa BHUTTO, to form the Pakistan People's Party (Shaheed Bhutto), or PPP-SB, to challenge Benazir Bhutto's hold on the party. The subsequent national legislative campaign in early 1997 contained an added element of personal hostility between the two women, although both suffered disastrous defeats in the election.

4 ‘Punishment to Benazir Bhutto killers demanded’ 2008, Business Recorder AIWBUR, 27 December – Attachment 4.

3 During 1998–1999 new corruption allegations or charges were repeatedly brought against Benazir Bhutto and her husband: kickbacks involving gold transactions, commissions from foreign defense manufacturers, abuse of power in making political appointments, and use of Swiss bank accounts to launder money. Bhutto's political viability suffered a major blow in April 1999 when a court sentenced her and her husband to five years in prison, disqualified them from public office for five years, and fined them $8.6 million for corruption and abuse of power. Bhutto asserted from England that she would appeal the conviction to the Supreme Court, which in April 2001 threw out the decision and ordered a retrial because of apparent government involvement in the verdict. In March 1999 the party leadership elected the former prime minister chair for life, a decision reiterated by a party convention in September 2000 in defiance of the government's August announcement that convicted criminals could not hold party offices. Bhutto remained in self- imposed exile, the Musharraf regime having refused to lift outstanding arrest warrants. In July 2002 Bhutto was again convicted, in absentia, of corruption, as was her husband in September. He had been imprisoned since 1986. Other cases against the two were pending in Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom as well as Pakistan. In September 2004 Zardari's corruption conviction was overturned, and on November 22 he was released on bail. He later left the country. To get around a proscription against the electoral participation of any party having a convicted criminal as an officeholder, the PPP organized the legally separate Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) in August 2002. Two months after its formation, the PPPP won 81 National Assembly seats, but in November it suffered the defection of 10 representatives who supported the installation of the Jamali government. (The move was possible because the antidefection clause of the constitution remained suspended.) The defectors then organized under Rao Sikander IQBAL as the Pakistan People's Party (Patriots), which merged with the PPP (Sherpao), a 1999 splinter (see the separate write-up, below), in June 2004. The new organization was then registered by the Election Commission as the “official” PPP. Bhutto's PPP immediately appealed the Election Commission's decision on the grounds that use of the PPP name by another party would deceive and defraud the electorate. Iqbal and his supporters joined the PML-Q before the 2008 general election, for which the PPP (Sherpao) was separately registered. On July 27, 2007, President Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto met in Abu Dhabi in the context of ongoing discussions between the government and her representatives on a power-sharing arrangement. Bhutto returned to Pakistan on October 18, following Musharraf's promulgation of a “reconciliation ordinance” that freed her from prosecution, but the imposition in November of a state of emergency resulted in her calling, while under house arrest, for Musharraf's resignation. Bhutto's assassination on December 27 by a suicide bomber and the resultant unrest led to postponement of the legislative election from January to February 2008. She was succeeded as party chair by a teenaged son, Bilawal, with Asif Zardari handling the party's day-to-day affairs. In the February 2008 election the PPP, running as the still-registered PPPP, won 30.6 percent of the vote and a plurality of 124 seats. (Zardari was prevented from running by earlier corruption convictions.) It then forged a coalition agreement with the PML-N, the ANP, and the JUI-F, after which the party vice chair, Yusuf Raza Gilani, was elected as prime minister. Following President Musharraf's August resignation, Zardari emerged as the leading candidate for the presidency, even though the PML-N had withdrawn from the coalition. Leaders: (PPP Chair), Asif Ali ZARDARI ( nd Cochair of the PPP), Yusuf Raza GILANI (Prime Minister and PPP Vice Chair), Makhdoom Amin FAHIM (PPPP Leader), Mian (PPPP Senate Leader), Jehangir BADER (PPP Secretary General).5

5 Banks, A.S., & Muller, T.C., eds., 2009, Political Handbook of the World Online Edition, ‘Albania’, Washington, CQ Press, http://library.cqpress.com/phw/phw2009_Pakistan - Accessed 23 November 2009 -. Attachment 5

4 A search of available resources does not indicate that supporters are the subject of adverse attention.

3. The Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) - what it wants/believes; how it operates; the attitude of authorities.

Information on the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) is contained in the abovementioned report (Political Handbook of the World of 2009):

Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The MMA (United Council for Action) was organized in June 2001 by the Islamic parties discussed below. The MMA campaigned on a platform that included restoration of the constitution, creation of an Islamic state, and resolution of the Kashmir issue through negotiation. Only the two JUI factions supported the Taliban regime in , but all of the constituent parties opposed General Musharraf's subsequent decision to join the U.S.-led “war on terrorism” and to permit U.S. forces to operate from Pakistani soil. Having won 60 seats in the National Assembly, the MMA was courted by both the PML-Q and the PPPP (with which it had little in common ideologically) to form a coalition government, but it rejected both. Its firm opposition to the 2002 Legal Framework Order was largely responsible for the yearlong stalemate in the National Assembly, until an agreement was reached with President Musharraf in December 2003. Although the MMA was chaired from its inception by the moderate Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani SIDDIQUI of JUP until his death in December 2003, the JUI-F's Fazlur Rahman and JIP's Qazi Hussain Ahmad have exerted more influence. More recently, differences between the two largest parties, the JUI-F and JIP, have threatened the MMA's effectiveness. One contentious issue was JIP's objections to participation in President Musharraf's National Security Council. As leader of the opposition, Fazlur Rahman held a seat on the council, as did JUI-F member Akram Khan DURRANI, who was at that time the chief minister of the NWFP. In July 2007 the MMA participated in the anti-Musharraf All Parties Conference and joined in forming the APDM, but the alliance subsequently split over whether to boycott the February 2008 election. The JUI-F chose to contest the election, in which it ran under the MMA banner, taking 2.2 percent of the vote and winning 7 seats. Leaders: Qazi Hussain AHMAD (President), Sajid Ali NAQVI, Fazlur RAHMAN (Secretary) (See Footnote 5)

Brief information on the ideological make-up of these parties is contained in the following pre-poll report:

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) The Pakistan People's Party was launched in 1967 by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was elected as its first chairman. The party's declared aim was to achieve an 'egalitarian democracy' and considered 'socialism' to be the best vehicle for realizing this dream. The party gained mass popularity and continues to be one of the largest political parties in Pakistan. The party has been in power for three times. Its late leader Benizar Bhutto was killed on Dec. 27 in a gunshot and bomb attack. … Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) MMA is a coalition of six religious parties. JI (Jamaat I Islami) and JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema Islam) are the largest parties within the coalition. The MMA has a highly conservative outlook. 6

6 ‘Backgrounder: Major political parties in Pakistani legislative election’ 2008, Xinhua News Agency, 16 February – Attachment 6. 5 According to this article from the Defense News of 10 March 2008, the MMA has had a decline in popularity:

Still, the two mainstream opposition political parties, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML(N)) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), have emerged as the biggest winners. … The elections also delivered a crushing blow to the MMA, an alliance of six religious parties that ruled the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and was a coalition partner of the PML (Q) in Baluchistan. In contrast to their 59 seats in the previous parliament, MMA parties have managed to win only three seats in the new parliament.7

List of Sources Consulted Internet Sources: Government Information & Reports UK Home Office website http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk US Department of State website http://www.state.gov Immigration and Refugee Board Canada http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/ Non-Government Organisations Amnesty International website http://www.amnesty.org/ Human Rights Watch (HRW) website http://www.hrw.org/ Search Engines Google search engine http://www.google.com.au/ Yahoo search engine http://search.yahoo.com Copernic search engine Online Subscription Services Jane’s Intelligence Review website http://jir.janes.com/ Strategic Forecasting http://www.stratfor.com/ Databases: FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIAC Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Country Research database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) MRT-RRT Library Catalogue

List of Attachments

1. US Department of State 2009, International Religious Freedom Report – Pakistan, 26 October.

2. Bearak, Barry 2001, ‘Death to Blasphemers: Islam’s grip on Pakistan’, The New York Times, 12 May. (FACTIVA)

3. ‘From Younus Shaikh: Thank You!’ 2004, International Humanist and Ethical Union website, 1 February - http://www.iheu.org/node/1007 -Accessed 25 November 2009.

4. ‘Punishment to Benazir Bhutto killers demanded’ 2008, Business Recorder AIWBUR, 27 December. (FACTIVA)

7 Hussain S R. 2008, ‘Pakistanis Reject Extremists in Elections’, Defense News, 10 March – Attachment 7)

6 5. Banks, A.S., & Muller, T.C., eds., 2009, Political Handbook of the World Online Edition, ‘Albania’, Washington, CQ Press, http://library.cqpress.com/phw/phw2009_Pakistan - Accessed 23 November 2009.

6. Backgrounder: Major political parties in Pakistanin legislative election’ 2008, Xinhua News Agency, 16 February. (FACTIVA)

7. Hussain S R. 2008, ‘Pakistanis Reject Extremists in Elections’, Defense News, 10 March – (FACTIVA)

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