Dawn.com: By Tahir Mehdi: Know thy box. I mean do you know what box your faith can fit into? You better check that out or you won’t be able to vote in general elections. You need to fill out Form IV to register yourself as a voter and if an enumerator has already luckily knocked at your door he would have filled Form 1 and 2 for your family. These and all other forms of the Election Commission include an array of check boxes titled Muslim, Hindu, Christian etc. You can’t help but fit yourself into one of these and in case of any confusion or hesitation you are awarded a liberal ‘Others’ box as well.

If you are a Hindu or a Christian your checked box is believed in as such. But if you are a Muslim you have to prove it. Don’t worry; you won’t be asked to walk on fire nor would you need to recite anything from your Islamiat text book. No, not even your deeds or character matter. The procedure has been simplified. All you need to do is sign or thumb impress a special For-Muslims-Only Oath declaring that you are not an Ahmadi. If you are not an Ahmadi, you are a Muslim for the purpose of and to the satisfaction of the state of Pakistan. All those who sign the Oath can take pride in being constitutionally declared Muslims besides being registered voters of the same status. [Reminder: Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims through the Fourth Constitutional Amendment in 1974].

Hey, but wait a minute. Why would the Election Commission need to know what religion I believe in? Don’t we have joint electorate system where everybody from an area votes for the same set of contestants?

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