Atif Mian
On Thursday, June 5th, the principal of Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, expelled every student who belonged to the Ahmadi community from the college.
A total of twenty three students, fifteen female and eight male, across the five years of medical school have been expelled as a result. Further details regarding the incident can also be found in reports from the BBC and from the Daily Times.
The Ahmadi students were “accused” of preaching their religious beliefs. The principal was pressured into expelling the entire Ahmadi student body by a mob of protesters belonging to Islami Jamiat e Talaba. The mob circled the Principal’s office and demanded the expulsions. The same day, a mob of about 300 college students also barged into Ahmadi students’ rooms, beat them and threw their luggage out of their rooms.
What makes this incident especially troubling is the fact that the decision to expel Ahmadi students was taken by a government-run medical school, under full knowledge of the relevant Punjab ministries.
As an academic, and a Pakistani, I am totally appalled by this latest incidence of religious fanaticism. One hopes that the present Punjab government turns a page, and instead of supporting the forces of extremism, comes to the protection of its ordinary citizens.
Atif Mian is Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.
@YLH: Yeah, that’s because a church, unlike a Qadiani place of worship, does not resemble a mosque in any way, so there is no need to declare it a church.
@Atif Mian: You wrote “But what is most impressive is that many Pakistanis took it upon themselves to take real action”. Unfortunately, the people who are in a position to take some real action do not read blogs and people like ourselves who read blogs just read blogs ;)
Sis ayesha fazal….thank you for letting us know your account and fo standing up for what you think is wrong.
Similarly Ahmadis do make their mosques but they are asked to make it clear that the mosque is an ahmadi place of worship
Abdul hafeez pirzada, bhutto’s law minister, proved himself to be a poor constitutional lawyer when he argued in 1974 that the national assembly was completely sovereign.
The correct position was that of Sir Zafrullah Khan who said it was beyond the scope of the national assembly under the 1973 constitution to make such a decision.
Ahmadis at the time of the promulgation of the constitution were legitimate established sect of Islam and the constitutional provisions dealing with Islam clearly said that Islam could only be interpretted according to each sect.
Therefore the second amendment is itself illegal and in violation of the constitution of 1973.
Ayaz,
Yes christians are and there are new churches in Pakistan constructed every now and then.
It would be unconstitutional to deny them this right.
Similarly Ahmadis do make their mosques but they are asked to make it clear that the mosque is an ahmadi place of worship…
it is quite distasteful really.
I was getting tired of everyone agreeing with everyone else on this blog and repeating each other 150 times on this post alone. I am glad someone from PMC showed up to defend what happened to the students. And now we can have an actual discussion and hopefully get people thinking.