the revealer: By Saba Imtiaz
The elections in Pakistan—a landmark in Pakistan’s history, representing the first transfer of power from one democratically elected government to the next—are over. For many voters, this was the first time they daubed their fingers in election ink, queued up outside polling stations in the heat, and witnessed election rigging. But as Pakistanis voted, and then stayed glued to their TVs to watch the results, approximately 200,000 Ahmadi Muslim voters were left out of the fray.
In a country where every vote counts, candidates for 272 parliamentary seats knocked on doors, and courted shopkeepers and businessmen to gain their support. But in this election—and in many preceding it—they did not ask Ahmadis to vote.
Given that hundreds of votes can change an election result this seems surprising. But political parties don’t need to make the effort, since Pakistan’s Ahmadis did not plan to vote in the May 11 polls, or in any foreseeable election for that matter. And it looks like this isn’t going to change, even though in Sindh alone the number of Ahmadi voters seems to have shot up to over six thousand.
Categories: Ahmadis And Pakistan, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Asia