Denial of Voting Rights in Pakistan
The issue
In order to vote Ahmadis are required to either deny their belief in the founder of their community as a Muslim reformer, or deny their Islamic beliefs and self-identify as a non-Muslim minority in Pakistan.
This has acted as an effective block on Ahmadis voting and has led to their disenfranchisement from the democratic process in Pakistan for nearly 40 years – including the 2018 elections.
Background
The discrimination flows from the 1974 amendment to the Pakistan Constitution that declares Ahmadis as non-Muslims. Then, as part of President Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamisation process, a separate electorate and electoral roll was created for all non-Muslims (following the above constitutional definition of non-Muslims) under ‘President’s Order No. 14 of 1985’, Schedule 11(3).
Under this system, blocks of non-Muslims were made to vote for only 5% of the seats in the National Assembly allocated to their specific block and were barred from voting in the general elections for their districts, which were confined to Muslim candidates and the Muslim electorate.
This system was partly abolished in 2002, when President Musharraf introduced a ‘joint electorate’, which lifted the requirement to declare religion when choosing to vote (The Conduct of General Elections Order (2002)) and allowed the electorate to vote for any candidate.
However, this was quickly followed by Executive Order Number 15 of 2002, which reinstated the subordinate position of Ahmadi Muslims and required that Ahmadis to be placed on a separate electoral register (as non-Muslims).
In 2007, the Election Commission ordered via its letter No. F.1(6)/2001-Cord dated 17 January, 2007 that separate supplementary lists for Ahmadis be prepared and published…” (Letter reproduced in Annex 2). This was also the case in 2011 in advance of the 2013 elections.
Therefore, despite the use of a joint electoral register for all other communities (whether Muslim, Sikh, Hindu or Christian) Ahmadi Muslims continue to be singled out and marginalised on the basis of their belief. The use of a separate (non-Muslim) electoral register for Ahmadis was again used in Pakistan’s local elections in 2015. This remains in place to this day.
Process
When registration to vote one must state his/her religion and if they state they are a Muslim then they must denounce the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community:
“I affirm on oath that I believe completely and unconditionally in the finality of Prophethood of Khatam un Nabiyyeen Muhammad (peace be upon him), and I am not follower of any person who claims to be a prophet in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever after Muhammad (peace be upon him) or recognize such a claimant as prophet or a religious reformer; nor am I associated with the Qadiani group or the Lahori group nor do I call myself an Ahmadi.”
A violation of this requirement is punishable with imprisonment.
Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan may therefore vote only after either signing a declaration that they do not belong to the Ahmadi Community, or acquiescing to their status as ‘non-Muslims’.
The separate electoral list for Ahmadis comprising Ahmadis only is published and is publicly available (with names and addresses of registered voters). This makes it very easy for extremists to target, harass, intimidate and kill Ahmadis. This is of great concern for Ahmadis who live in more remote areas where they are more vulnerable as they may live in fewer numbers.