Persecution of ahmadies:A Brief on Ahmadis and Elections in Pakistan

Ahmadis remain deprived of voting in national elections at all levels

ELECTORAL SYSTEM is basic to any election.  In Pakistan, it has a history. Since the inception of Pakistan in 1947 to the time of General Zia-ul-Haq, all the national elections to the provincial and national assemblies were conducted on the basis of Joint Electorate system. This was in line with the vision of the founding fathers of this nation and was duly enshrined in the 1973 Constitution. Ahmadis participated in elections as the rest of the population.

Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto (in power 1971 – 1977) introduced a change in that he allocated a few additional seats to religious minorities in assemblies, over and above their rights in the general arrangement. These representatives for the minorities were elected by the assembly members. As Ahmadis did not accept the imposed status of a non-Muslim minority, handed down to them through Amendment No. II to the Constitution, they never availed these seats although there was an odd case whereby the government rigged and nominated a non-representative dummy as show-boy to fill the vacancy that was never requested nor accepted by the Ahmadiyya community.

General Zia-ul-Haq, in addition to his other disservices to the nation, imposed the system of Separate Electorate. He imposed it in 1985, through the 8^th Amendment to the 1973 constitution. Since then elections were held in the country on this basis that separate electoral lists are prepared for different religious groups. Those who claim to be Muslims have to sign a certificate of faith in ‘the end of prophethood’ and deny the veracity of the holy founder of Ahmadiyyat. The separate electorate system divided the Pakistani polity in numerous entities based on religion, and did great damage to the first pillar of ‘Unity’ in the motto ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline’ given by the founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

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