With the Sialkot incident jolting the entire nation, the leadership of Pakistan has taken measures to ensure that nothing comes in the way of interfaith harmony.

In a multicultural world where bad news travel at the speed of light, nothing as much causes the repute of a people to go to pot in the twinkling of an eye as avowedly faith-based vandalism does. In a multiethnic society, where interfaith harmony provides the soundest foundation for the social order, nothing constitutes a graver threat to peace, stability and cohesion than culpable homicide in the name of creed. 
Likewise, few incidents will place a polity – which is fending off Fifth Generation Warfare by hostile countries and agencies who would jump at any opportunity to have it slapped with international sanctions – in a vulnerable position other than wanton killing perpetrated in the name of faith. To an economy which is opening up to the rest of the world for trade, transport, investment and tourism, hardly anything else can be as fatal as the spectacle of a mob lynching a foreign worker for alleged blasphemy. In a word, for reasons economic, social, humanitarian and political, terrorism is an evil. When this terrorism is glorified and sanctified by invoking or exploiting religious sentiments it becomes a cataclysmic evil. 
It is in this context that the death of a Sri Lankan at the hands of a mob in Sialkot in December 2021 left the Pakistani nation in cold sweat. Sri Lanka is a credible friend of Pakistan and the Sri Lankans hold in high esteem the support given to their nation by the Pakistani government in putting down a sanguinary insurgency and restoring peace and order in the north-east of the country nearly a decade and a half ago. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a free trade agreement (FTA), which provides a solid basis of bilateral trade and investment relations. The game of cricket furnishes another bond between the two brotherly nations. As one may recall, during the 1996 ICC World Cup final in Lahore, the crowd fully backed the Sri Lankan side as if they were the home team, which eventually went on to lift the trophy. 

In a major manifestation of its unflinching commitment to promote interfaith harmony, the Government of Pakistan constructed and, in 2019, opened the Kartarpur Corridor to enable Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the gurdwara without having to get a visa. The opening of the corridor, notwithstanding simmering tensions with India over its illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir, gave out the message that for the government and people of Pakistan religious harmony transcends political differences. This outstanding gesture has drawn accolades from all over the world and burnished Pakistan’s image as a promoter of interfaith harmony.

At any rate, the killing of a foreigner on our land, irrespective of the country of origin, in such cold-blooded manner is a dastardly act which will make anyone feel sick to their stomach. That the victim was a Sri Lankan managing a manufacturing unit in Pakistan has made the act even more disgusting. 
The very fact that this tragedy took place in Sialkot is ironic for at least three reasons: Sialkot is known all over the world for its vibrant sports goods and medical equipment industries, which together contribute more than half a billion dollars annually to export revenue. Over the years, Sialkot’s businesses have earned a good name internationally for their entrepreneurship. In particular, footballs manufactured in Sialkot were used in the FIFA World Cup finals of 2014 and 2018, which is a testament to their top quality. 
The city also has the distinction of being the birth place of the poet-philosopher, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who was an ardent exponent of a progressive, forward-looking and rationalistic society. 
Adjacent to Sialkot is the Narowal District, where Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, which is one of the holiest places in Sikh religion, is located. In a major manifestation of its unflinching commitment to promote interfaith harmony, the Government of Pakistan constructed and, in 2019, opened the Kartarpur Corridor to enable Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the gurdwara without having to get a visa. The opening of the corridor, notwithstanding simmering tensions with India over its illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir, gave out the message that for the government and people of Pakistan religious harmony transcends political differences. This outstanding gesture has drawn accolades all over the world and burnished Pakistan’s image as a promoter of interfaith harmony. Regrettably, the Sialkot incident in question has projected a very different image of the country. In a world where perception is as important as the reality and having a good national image has immense brand power, images of violence and vandalism, especially when done in the name of religion, don’t augur well for the country’s long-term socioeconomic interests.

The wholesale condemnation of the incident by all sections of the society — civil and military leadership, businesses, religious scholars, and civil society — and the state’s unequivocal resolve to call to account the culprits and put its foot down on extremism and terrorism in any form should come as a cause for relief. 

At the same time, the wholesale condemnation of the incident by all sections of the society — civil and military leadership, businesses, religious scholars, and civil society — and the state’s unequivocal resolve to call to account the culprits and put its foot down on extremism and terrorism in any form should come as a cause for relief. The Prime Minister spoke to his Sri Lankan counterpart and assured him that the culprits would be brought to justice. Already more than one hundred people including the main accused have been arrested and put behind bars. 
To ensure a speedy trial of the accused persons involved in the killing of the Sri Lankan national, the case will be tried by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) constituted under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 as amended. The Act stipulates that the investigations shall be completed within 30 days and that the ATC shall carry out day-to-day trials and decide the case within seven days (Section 19). In case the ATC is not able to complete the trial within the stipulated period, the matter shall be brought to the notice of the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court for appropriate orders. No court other than an ATC, High Court, or the Supreme Court is empowered to grant bail or otherwise release an accused in a case falling within the purview of the Anti-Terrorism Act. 
Section 7 of the Act provides that killing is punishable with death or life imprisonment, while those who aided and abetted the culpable homicide shall be awarded sentence of three years or more. Likewise, under Section 11W of the Act, glorification of terrorism by audio/video, written, or any other means is punishable with up to five-year imprisonment. An appeal against the final judgment of the ATC shall lie to the High Court concerned within 15 days against the conviction and within 30 days against the acquittal. The High Court shall hear and decide the appeal within seven working days (Section 25). A special High Court bench shall be constituted for this purpose. 

Such provisions are calculated to ensure that heinous offences like terrorism and extremism, which jeopardize Pakistan’s peace and stability and interfaith harmony, are dealt with sternly and timely.

Such provisions are calculated to ensure that heinous offences like terrorism and extremism, which jeopardize Pakistan’s peace and stability and interfaith harmony, are dealt with sternly and timely. Swift and due punishment to the perpetrators of the Sialkot incident will demonstrate the state’s sturdy commitment to rooting out extremism and give assurance to foreign businesses, workers and tourists about Pakistan being a safe place for visiting, living and doing business. 
Just as bad deeds need to be condemned, good deeds deserve due mention and acknowledgement. While the vigilantes were beating the Sri Lankan national, one person named Malik Adnan desperately shielded him with a view to protecting him until he was overpowered by the crowd. In recognition of this heroic act, he has been conferred with Tamgha-i-Shujaat (Medal of bravery) by the Prime Minister. When the state denounces and vows to take to task the spoilers of interfaith harmony and rewards its promoters, it sends out appropriate signals across the society and all over the world. 
Historically, culturally, and economically, interfaith harmony is vital to Pakistan. Historically, the creation of Pakistan was undergirded by lack of interfaith harmony in a multi-creed British India. It was the attempts of the majority community to turn the country into a monolithic society that prompted Muslims to come up with the demand for a separate homeland. Although religion was the only basis of the bifurcation of British India, the purpose was not to create a theocratic, monolithic state but to safeguard the social, economic and political rights of the Muslims. And once Pakistan was created, the rights of even non-Muslims would be protected as equal citizens. 
Alive to the importance of interfaith harmony for the stability of the new state, the founder of Pakistan, the late Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, famously stated: “You are free, you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in the State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed, that has nothing to do with the business of the state…. Now, I think that we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state.” That was the vision of a pluralistic society, where interfaith harmony forms the bedrock. 
Interfaith harmony is also built into the constitution of Pakistan. For instance, the fundamental rights enshrined in the basic law of the land, such as treatment in accordance with the law and equal protection of law (Articles 4 and 9); the right to fair trial and due process of law (Article 10A); and the freedom of conscience and of association (Articles 7 and 20) have been granted irrespective of one’s religion. Article 22 states that no person shall be required to receive religious education or attend a religious ceremony which relates to a religion other than their own. Article 27 prohibits discrimination in appointment to the government on the basis of religion. Article 36 makes it obligatory upon the state to safeguard the legitimate rights of the minorities including their adequate representation in Federal and Provincial governments. Election to National and Provincial Assemblies are held on the basis of joint electorates for Muslims and non-Muslims, as per the latter’s demand. However, to ensure adequate representation of the minorities, seats have been reserved for them both in the Parliament and in provincial legislatures. 
With the exception of the President and Prime Minister, all elected and non-elected offices are open to non-Muslims. Our key institutions represent the nation of Pakistan in all its diversity. In the past, two non-Muslims occupied the highest judicial office of the land. The national institutions have always upheld pluralistic principles. A few years back, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty awarded to Punjab’s Governor, Salman Taseer’s assassin who had tried to justify the shooting by appealing to faith. In a related case, the apex court acquitted a Christian woman of blasphemy charges because of lack of evidence. The principle established in both cases is that although blasphemy is punishable with death, citizens on their own can’t act as judge, jury or executioner. The conviction is to be done and the sentence is to be awarded by the courts on the basis of hardcore evidence. 

Promoting interfaith harmony and extirpating extremism and terrorism are essential for Pakistan’s stability, growth, and development. In the backdrop of the Sialkot incident, the civil and military leadership has reiterated to pursue a multivariate strategy to stamp out extremism and vigilantism. All sections of the society need to stand behind the state institutions in their efforts to make Pakistan a peaceful and extremism-free society.

It’s pertinent to reproduce here a paragraph from the apex court’s landmark verdict, which read: “In case of the commission of such crime, only the state has the authority to bring the machinery of law into operation, bringing the accused before court of the competent jurisdiction for trial in accordance with law. However, it is not for the individuals or a gathering to decide as to whether any act falling within the purview of Section 295-C [dealing with blasphemy] has been committed or not, because as stated earlier, it is the mandate of the court to make such a decision after conducting a fully-qualified trial on the basis of credible evidence brought before it. No such parallel authority could in any circumstances be bestowed upon any individual or a group of persons.” The paragraph, coming as it does from the highest court of the land, encapsulates the State of Pakistan’s stance on a highly sensitive issue.
By contrast in India, which keeps harping on its avowed secular credentials, the minorities, particularly the Muslims, have been in a double bind in recent years, coinciding with the installment of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Here is a country whose warp and woof is marginalization and victimization on the basis of caste and creed, which draws sustenance from pulling down religious symbols of the minorities, and which is unscrupulous enough to treat its citizens to pellet guns.
Although the Congress Party, India’s erstwhile ruling party, would only pay lip service to secularism, the Modi government has thrown overboard even a semblance of secularism. As noted by the Human Rights Watch, since BJP came into power in 2014, discrimination against the minorities has been legitimized through a slew of legislative and executive measures. For instance, in August 2019, the special status of the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, was revoked in violation of India’s own constitution as well as its bilateral and multilateral commitments. Since then, the Indian IIOJK has remained under siege. Then, in December 2019, the government rammed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) through the Parliament with a view to further marginalize Muslims living in India. Since 2017 five Indian states, all led by BJP, have passed or updated their anti-conversion laws, which inter alia set down that a person who changes their faith to enter into a wedlock shall be deemed to have forcibly converted. All such measures run counter to India’s membership of international human right conventions, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. But since such draconian measures have proved vote winning in the recent years, their pursuit is likely to continue with even greater impunity. For all intents and purposes, secularism seems to be a dead duck in India.
Coming back to Pakistan, the nation has waged an epic struggle against the twin scourges of terrorism and extremism, which until a few years ago had thrown the national economy and society into a tailspin. Now that it’s time to consolidate the hard-earned gains secured in the struggle following successful military operations and other appropriate actions against extremist outfits, the government is committed to putting the lid on these dark forces. Despite having the most liberal investment regime in the region and being a big and growing market, Pakistan has received exceedingly low inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the recent years (on average $1.82 billion per annum between FY2010-11 and FY2020-21). One of the major reasons has been a precarious security situation which held back multinational enterprises (MNEs) from moving to Pakistan as the foreigners had concerns about the safety of their lives and assets. In the face of meager FDI inflows, the country has been forced to borrow heavily from abroad and thus accumulated a massive debt. Every year debt servicing claims the lion’s share in the total public expenditure.
Due to extremism and terrorism, over the last one-and-a-half decade, Pakistan has largely been seen as an unstable and unsafe country. But thanks to the strides made on the security front over the past few years, this negative perception about Pakistan is beginning to change. Under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), scores of Chinese companies and thousands of Chinese managers and workers have relocated to Pakistan — and many more are likely to enter. It is imperative to give foreign businesses and personnel a sense of security for capitalizing on the country’s enormous investment potential.
As the strong public reaction to the Sialkot incident brings out, Pakistan is a moderate society. However, just as bad money drives out good money, saner voices tend to peter out amid extremist propaganda, and saner minds struggle to make a successful pitch in the presence of demagogues. Being by and large gullible when it comes to matters of faith, the masses are apt to be swept off their feet by a rancorous interpretation of religious doctrines. A powerful counter-narrative is a most effective antidote to fanaticism and bigotry triggered by the pulpit. 
Promoting inter-faith harmony and extirpating extremism and terrorism are essential for Pakistan’s stability, growth, and development. In the backdrop of the Sialkot incident, the civil and military leadership has reiterated to pursue a multivariate strategy to stamp out extremism and vigilantism. This commitment is embodied in the recently unveiled National Security Policy (NSP), the first of its kind. All sections of the society need to stand behind the state institutions in their efforts to make Pakistan a peaceful, prosperous and extremism-free society.

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