Pakistan’s leading Human Rights activist Asma Jahangir has said that Ahmadiyya Muslims are the most persecuted religious minority in Pakistan. Jahangir made the remarks while speaking at the Hudson Institute on May 18th, in Washington D.C. The event was moderated by Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani.
Answering a question about Pakistan’s anti-Ahmadiyya laws Jahangir said:
The supreme court in one of the cases many years ago had given a judgement on the Ahmadi issue which I find revolting in terms of human rights, it is a revolting judgement which says that a muslim has copyright over certain things and no one can copy it.
The worst are the Ahmadis in Pakistan, not only in Pakistan but [even] in Indonesia & Bangladesh the Ahmadis are being persecuted. I say that it is the worst kind of persecution in Pakistan [because] the persecution is by the state and there is a law which by name says [Ahmadis] can not do this or do that. There are thousands of [court] cases against them. They are constantly in and out of courts.
She went on to say:
What i find even worse is the kind of discrimination that Ahmadi children have to face in schools and colleges and at times even violence because of their religion
Anyone who speaks to defend them is also painted as a heretic, the worst and most horrifying thing is that they [Ahmadis] are considered to be Wajibul Qatal [which] means that you can kill them and that would not be a sin, So anyone who supports them also becomes Wajibul Qatal.
Speaking on the issue of Ahmadiyya persecution, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani said:
“They are completely disfranchised under the electoral laws because unless they acknowledge themselves as non-Muslims they can’t vote as non-Muslims and since they are [declared] not Muslims they can not vote as Muslims so that’s another important discrimination against the Ahmadiyya community.”