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A correction Pakistan owes itself
A separate claim in the material circulating alongside this case says that the 1973 Constitution bars non-Muslims from contesting ordinary National or Provincial Assembly seats. That claim is false. The National Assembly’s published constitutional text expressly contemplates a non-Muslim standing for a general seat or a seat reserved for non-Muslims. Reserved representation and equal opportunity in practice remain legitimate subjects of debate, but that debate must begin with the law as it stands. Conflating the rules for elected assembly seats with restrictions on particular constitutional offices obscures the real issue.
Pakistan’s Christian citizens have served the country in its courts, armed forces, classrooms, politics and sport. Remembering figures such as Justice A. R. Cornelius, Cecil Chaudhry and Shahbaz Bhatti should lead to something more durable than ceremonial praise: a country in which citizenship, competent defence and timely justice do not depend on a person’s faith or on the popularity of their case. Jinnah’s appeal for the divisions between majority and minority communities to diminish still asks something practical of us. It asks whether institutions will protect a Pakistani’s rights when doing so is difficult.
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