By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
PAKISTAN (ANS) -- Some Christians are hopeful, but many others are doubtful that there will be any change for them after the recent elections in Pakistan.
According to an article by Aftab Alexander Mughal of
Minorities Concern of Pakistan (MCP), Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) won a parliamentary majority in the May 11
elections.
MCP said during the election season, the Taliban went after three major liberal political parties because of their "liberal" agendas. They were the National Awami Party (ANP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).MCP said the Taliban spared reportedly pro-Taliban parties; the PML-N and former cricketer Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (TI, Movement for Justice).
In four weeks, MCP said, more than 1,300 people were killed by the Taliban's attacks, but neither the PML-N or the TI condemned these bloody incidents.
MCP said for the last five year s, Sharif's younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, had been running the Punjab province, which is home for 60 per cent of Pakistanis. About 80 per cent of Pakistani Christians also live in this province.
MCP said the Taliban has close connections with other Islamic militant organizations, including Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a banned terrorist organization, which has repeatedly been targeting Ahmedis, Shias and Christians.
MCP said the SSP still operates in Punjab under a new name Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.
Traditionally, MCP reported, Christians vote for liberal parties. However, many Christians voted for Sharif's party this time. The younger Sharif got majority of votes from a predominately Christian neighborhood Yohannaabad in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, where there are 35,000 registered Christian voters.
During an election rally, Nawaz Sharif promised that his party would give equal rights to minorities, including Christians.
"The situation for Christians may be different this time because of the Sharif brothers promise that they would bring positive changes for minorities," MCP reported Irfan Barkat, a Christian activist said.
"The way they rehabilitated Christian families of Joseph Colony, which was attacked by Muslim protesters in March this year, has changed somehow Christians' view about Mr. Sharif's party," Barkat added.
However, MCP said, the majority of Christians are still skeptical about the future prospects of Christian in Pakistan when Sharif becomes the prime minister.
MCP said that's because every time when the Muslim League runs Punjab province, Christian areas become targets for Muslim radicals.
In almost all the attacks in previous years, MCP said, the SSP and the local leaders of PML-N played a major role in instigating attacks on Christian areas by local Muslims.
According to MCP, Christian political leaders said during a press conference in Lahore on May 30 that Christians are worried the situation would be dangerous for them during Sharif's upcoming presid ency.
Three weeks ago, about 250 Christian families from a Christian village named Chak 31, in southern Punjab, were forced to leave their homes because of the fear of attack by Islamists.
MCP said all the issues occurred because Muslims blamed Christians for blasphemy against the Quran and Muhammad.
MCP reported that Nadeem Anthony, a Christian lawyer and a council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said, "The majority of Christians have no hope about Sharif's forthcoming government, because of its conservative religious approach and close linkages with fundamentalist groups."
He added, "Sharif has also been in favor of blasphemy laws, which is one of the major causes of Christians' troubles in Pakistan."
MCP said, "As long as the blasphemy laws are not rescinded or altered, Christians would suffer in the same way during Sharif's government as they suffered during the past."
Pakistan is a conservative Islamic country where Christians are a very t iny minority; just 1.5 per cent of the total population.
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