Has Pakistan become ungovernable? Whatever the claim the Benazir Government may make, most people would doubt its capacity to curb sectarian violence and to rein in the Islamic fundamentalists who are running a riot in that country. Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan and its largest city, has been in the throes of a many-faceted anarchy in recent months. Religious minorities are under attack throughout Pakistan but more so in Karachi. The minuscule Hindu population has never felt secure in Pakistan, in Karachi its members live like third-rate citizens.
Of late, the sizable Christian population too has become target of hate and bigoted action directed at it by the Muslim majority. In the name of Islam, Christians are being harassed routinely. The recent trial of two Christians, one of them a minor boy, on charges of their having blasphemed Islam, has attracted world-wide attention.
The sentence of death by hanging passed against the 13-year old Christian boy by a lower court in Lahore speaks volumes for the barbaric mentality of that country’s law makers. It was a frivolous case that was brought to trial by the Islamic zealots. Mercifully, the High Court in Lahore has reversed the lower court’s order and acquitted the two accused honourably. But the case has damaged further the image of Pakistan as a civilised nation in the eyes of the world.
