CLAAS meets British Foreign Office

UK: October 20, 2009, (PCTV Newsdesk)

A CLAAS delegation including Nasir Saeed and the Rev Alwin Samuel met recently with the British Foreign Office to discuss the UK Government’s response to the attacks on Gojra and Korian. They met Mr Asif Choudhury of the Asia-Pacific deskand human rights officer Joel Cassin.

  During the meeting, the CLAAS team highlighted that the UK Government had not publicly condemned the attacks. Mr Choudhury said that the UK’s foreign policy was led by the EU but assured that questions of religious freedom and the rights of religious minorities were raised with Pakistani officials when they visit the UK.  

The CLAAS team updated the FCO representatives on the situation in Gojra, including:

• the rising tensions between Christians and Muslims there
• the release from prison of some of the Muslims involved in the attacks due to a failure on the part of police to effectively gather evidence
• the murder of a young Christian, Fanish Masih, while being held in police custody and the fact that the post mortem report on the cause of his death has not yet been released

CLAAS also reported the reality of discrimination facing Christians and the danger that the blasphemy laws pose for religious minorities in Pakistan in the form of:

• trumped up charges
• the improper investigation of First Instance Reports
• the long and unjustified detention of Christians
• impunity for clerics who call on mobs of Muslims to unite against Christian communities, as well as impunity for the perpetrators of the attacks that result from such calls

The FCO representatives said the UK special envoy to Pakistan had received assurances from the governor of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, that the perpetrators of the attacks would be brought to justice and that instructions had been given to the Lahore High Court to investigate the case.

CLAAS also reminded the FCO representatives that the aid promised to Pakistan by the UK – more than £700 million – was conditional on Pakistan improving its human rights record and improving the situation of Christians in particular. CLAAS underlined the crucial need to foster dialogue between religious minorities in Pakistan and repeal or drastically amend the blasphemy law. If neither of these solutions are implemented, CLAAS proposes that new legislation be passed to undermine the blasphemy law.

Lastly, CLAAS asked the FCO about what it thought of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s terming the Gojra violence a “crime against humanity”. The FCO representatives said they were concerned about the use of the term and would consider it further.  

The CLAAS delegation was invited to return to the FCO when Mr Choudhury’s successor to the Asia-Pacific desk, Ben Stride, takes over in a month’s time.