The process by which Christians became a marginalised community in Muslim-majority Pakistan dates back to the upheaval of Partition. Asif Aqeel traces out the processes by which Pakistani Christians have been violently and repeatedly uprooted from their homes
Over the years, Pakistani Christians have been forcibly displaced several times. Sometimes they are forced to move because of sporadic mob violence over allegations of blasphemy. Other times, they are displaced by state-sponsored polices. The latest move came from the Capital Development Authority (CDA), responsible for providing municipal services in Islamabad. The authority is fighting a legal battle in the highest court in Pakistan to demolish slums known as katchi abadis (squatter settlements), mostly inhabited by Christians.
The CDA, in its document submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, describes Christians as unskilled and unproductive. They, according to the CDA, come from rural backgrounds and are “land grabbers” who have erected patches of “ugly villages” on the scenic landscape of Islamabad, which is “one of the most beautiful cities of the world.”
The CDA stated that "ugly" slums had ruined the landscape of the capital
The CDA does not recognise the fact that these Christian slum dwellers are children of hundreds of thousands of Christians expelled from villages at the time of the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Prior to Partition, these people were a homogeneous community that had only a few decades ago converted to Christianity en masse, from an ‘untouchable’ Hindu caste. They had worked as sepis and atharhis (village servitors) with Sikh landlords and were dependent on them for shelter, food and clothing.
Referring to the plight of these village servitors, Christian parliamentarian SP Singha stated in the Punjab Assembly on January 20, 1948, “Respected sir (Speaker Assembly), kindly pay attention to the nonsense done by the Sikhs, who, after living for years in this province, have at once left it and created a gigantic problem for us (Christians). The government might know better but our estimates show that about 60,000 families or 200,000 people of our community, who worked as sepis or atharis (village dependents) for Sikhs in this province, have become homeless after the partition commotion.”
Christians make up a significant part of the population of slums slated for demolition in Islamabad
The land abandoned by Sikhs was allotted to Muslim migrants and thousands of Christians were insulted, beaten and accused of theft - acts meant to push them out from their villages. “The crux of their plight is humiliation and hunger,” Singha informed the Assembly. “There are only two ways to deal with the issue of the Christians: either we dig trenches and bury them alive or send them to refugee camps (because they have) no food and shelter.”
Singha tried hard to get the government to allot some land for Christians in their native villages. The minister for refugee settlement and the revenue minister approved three to four acres of agricultural land for each Christian family but the file containing these state documents suddenly disappeared from the Secretariat. Governor Robert Francis Mudie even enquired regarding what was being done for these Christian villagers but the file was not to be found.
The CDA utilised force in clearing out the I-11 Katchi Abadi in Islamabad
The total population of Christians at the time was about 450,000 in the Punjab. The number of homeless Christians increased further by April 1952. C.E. Gibbon, another member of the Punjab Assembly, stated, “I beg to ask for leave to make a motion…to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the grave situation arising out of the policy of the government in respect of the wholesale eviction of Christian sepis, atharhis and tenants from their home holdings, thus rendering nearly 300,000 Christians homeless and on the verge of starvation, the consequences of which are too horrible to imagine.”
Under the Indian caste system, occupations have religious, economic and social implications and are associated with birth in a particular caste. When most metropolitan ‘untouchable’ Hindus sweepers opted for India, these Christians - being illiterate, unskilled and coming from ‘untouchable’ castes - were expected to provide cheap labor as sweepers in cities. The majority of Muslims retained the caste disabilities of the Hindus whose oppression they had supposedly escaped.
"The fire hadn't been fully put out when some men started measuring the area they wanted to occupy," recalled Hanifa Bibi
In cities, these poor Christians settled on government land along sewerage drains (nullahs) where there were no civic amenities available. There was no pressure from the state on these abandoned areas because these Christians were providing menial labor. As the population and land prices rose dramatically, land mafias and state functionaries began eying small illegal slums occupied by Christians. In 1960, it was decided that a new capital would be built and Christians started pouring into Islamabad in large numbers. Christians in Islamabad provided cheap labor as road sweepers and sewerage cleaners. Many Christians continue to occupy these jobs.
The only other people who came to Islamabad in such a devastated state were Afghan refugees, who also live in illegal slums and sometimes work as garbage collectors.
Over the decades, the CDA has legalised few slums. It is all set to retain the land it describes as a “main monetary source”.
The Authority started demolition of illegal shanty towns occupied by Afghan refugees early this July, after which the inhabitants went to court. The Supreme Court of Pakistan framed several questions for the CDA to answer before a decision could be made.
Authorities in Islamabad are accused of denying these slum dwellers the right to basic shelter
The CDA submitted an answer early this month saying that katchi abadis had ruined the landscape of the capital. Acres of “posh land” had been encroached on and space along water channels which had been “left open for future use” had converted to “ugly slums”.
The report, full of grammatical and typographical errors, discusses the Christian aspect of these colonies: “It is necessary to identify the fact that most of the katchi abadis are occupied by Christians who shifted from Narowal, Sheikhupura, Shakargarh, Sialkit, Kasur, Sahiwal, and Fasialabad . They occupied land so boldly, as if it had been allotted to them. It seems this pace of occupation of land by Christian community may affect the Muslim majority of the capital.”
The authority considers Christian residents of Islamabad “outsiders” - a threat to the Muslim majority of the city. According to a report by Community World Service Asia, titled Religious Minorities in Pakistan’s Elections, there are about 26,500 registered non-Muslim voters living in Islamabad. This means that there are no less than 50,000 to 70,000 Christians living in the capital while the total non-Muslim population in slums in the capital is 84,591.
“This case has raised a question in the Supreme Court whether Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan [applies here,] which guarantees the right to life [and] also includes shelter. In several other countries, the right to life includes providing shelter,” stated Abid Hassan Minto, jurist and president of the Awami Workers’ Party. His party represents the squatters. “The CDA has identified 44 katchi abadis it wants to demolish but the 2001 federal policy clearly stipulates that no one could be evicted from a katchi abadi without first providing an alternative,” he told the court.
The Akram Masih Gill Colony, in Sector H-9/2 of Islamabad, is also among the slums that are up for demolition. Daniel Masih, a resident of the colony, says, “The CDA disconnected water supplies. There is already no electricity and no waste management system.”
This colony came into existence after a young Christian girl was accused of blasphemy in 2012. Rimsha Masih and other residents of this colony were living in Meharabad Jaffar. Sixteen-year-old Rimsha was accused of burning some Islamic texts, after which an angry mob wanted to burn her and the houses of Christians in the neighborhood. “Christian residents of Meharabad Jaffar fled from there and setup makeshift tents here,” said Daniel Masih.
Be it Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar or Islamabad, illegal Christian slums can be found across the country. Even in several villages they are living on shamlaat-de, state land dedicated for communal purposes. With high population growth rates and long term planning, Christians are being pressured to vacate government land they lived on for decades. Encroachment on Christian graveyards is also very common across the country.
In 2009, at least seven Christians were murdered by a mob over the pretext of blasphemy in Gojra. The incident displaced Christians in Korian village. 73-year-old Hanifa Bibi and her 80-year-old paralysed husband Baba Sharif Masih were the only Christians left in the village when a mob burned down their neighborhood.
“The fire hadn’t been fully put out when some men started measuring the area they wanted to occupy,” recalled Hanifa Bibi.
In March 2013, the Supreme Court of Pakistan found that land-grabbing was the prime motive behind the large-scale arson in Joseph Colony.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto banned liquor and gambling and shut down nightclubs in the 1970s. Liquor was only permitted for non-Muslims under the Constitution. Be it Christian slum Isanagar in Karachi or France Colony in Islamabad, these pockets of religious minorities became a source of drugs, liquor and cheap prostitution. The Christian slums are identified as “foreign” in character because of these stereotypical associations.
On its part, the CDA has suggested a long-term solution to the Supreme Court to deal with mass migration in general and particularly that of Christians: “Pakistan is an agricultural land. The federal government and the provincial governments may formulate policies regarding improvement in the economic status of villagers by provision of loans/machinery/land to the locals so that they can make their earnings easily and participate in the development of the country (instead of migrating to the Capital to grab land).”
SP Singha suggested the same solution decades ago to keep Christians in villages but the Pakistani bureaucracy at that time cheated that community. Now the Pakistan state ought to make amends and provide land rights to Christians in cities, rather than exporting them back to villages.
This article is based upon Asif Aqeel’s thesis Post-Partition Mass Displacement and Subsequent Illegal Settlements of Punjabi Christians in Pakistan, to be submitted for MA Public Policy and Governance at the Forman Christian College University
