Pakistan: Christians Fight Eviction
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Thousands of poor Pakistanis face the destruction of their temporary homes in Islamabad after a government agency announced last week that Christian migrant slums threatened the demographics of the city’s Muslim majority.
According to Morning Star News, Pakistan’s Capital Development Authority began bulldozing the improvised dwellings of 16,000 Christians living in the I-11 settlement months before the Supreme Court ordered the PCDA to cease and desist.
Christians living in these settlements have a hard time finding jobs in Islamabad simply because they are Christians — one of the most marginalized groups in Pakistan. Viewed as unclean and unwanted, Christians are seen as “untouchable” by Pakistan’s Muslim majority, resulting in a systematic discrimination that has left Pakistani Christians perpetually poor and uneducated.
“These poor Christians find themselves much worse off in Islamabad,” said Pakistan Interfaith League Chairman Sajid Ishaq, “as they are compelled to take up low-paid, marginalized jobs like sweeping roads and domestic work.
“Article 38 of the Constitution of Pakistan states that promotion of the social and economic well-being of the people of Pakistan — irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race — is one of the basic tasks for the government. This does not seem to be the case for poor Christians who have no one to turn to for justice.”
After all, said Ishaq, who wants to live in a slum?