Source: AHRC via Nasim Malik
The world has strongly and repeatedly drawn the attention of Pakistan to its self-contradictory franchise system which denies the Ahmadi Muslims the fundamental right to vote.( Click here to read our previous statement on the issue)
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has judiciously taken a firm action to open a petition submitted in 2007 by Kanwar Idrees, a Former Minister of the Sindh Government and a member of the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan. Kanwar Idrees argued that the law discriminated against Ahmadis in particular, while it allowed other non-Muslim Communities to be registered in the joint electoral rolls.
In the hearing on Thursday 28 February 2013, Idrees maintained that as Pakistani citizens, he and other Ahmadis should be treated equally in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan.
The Supreme Court three-member bench presided over by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry directed the Attorney General and the Election Commission of Pakistan to respond to the five year old petition of Kanwar Idrees and explain the Constitutional status of Former President Pervez Musharraf’s 2002 Order which inserted Articles 7 (b) and (c) in the Constitution and allowed the creation of separate electoral rolls for Ahmadis.
The hearing of the petition was deferred to Monday 11 March when it is hoped that sanity and justice will prevail and justice will triumph.
It is tragic that Pakistan which is now at the threshold of another General Election and takes great pride in claiming to be a democracy has completely ignored and defied the international and fundamental civic rights in ensuring that all its subjects, without any discrimination whatsoever regarding faith, belief or ethnic origin, are allowed to vote.