Source: ET
Numerically it is bizarre why minorities are a big issue in Pakistan. Enumerating with regards to religion, Pakistan has just about four to five million Christians, just over five million Hindus, and tiny percentages of Sikhs, Buddhists and other minorities. So in a country of over 180 million, just about 10-11 million are non-Muslims — that’s not even 10 per cent. However, under the constitution of Pakistan a non-Muslim cannot become either the President or the Prime Minister of the country. It is as if there is a chance for any Hindu or Christian to even rise to that position which necessitated this clause? In a country which is 94 per cent Muslim, it would be quite impossible for a non-Muslim to get first elected to parliament without Muslim support, then get a majority of the members of the National Assembly to support him/her, and then get elected as PM, or in the even more complicated scenario of the presidential election, get majorities in the provincial assemblies too — if any non-Muslim achieves this impossible feat perhaps they should become the PM or President in any case! But there is a law specifically to prevent this spectacular scenario.