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bearing the cross · reportage
FEBRUARY 2018
according to Nadeem and Akmal, set
back any gains of minorities’ struggles
by a century.
Shahbaz emerged as a prominent
politician after the turn of the mil-
lenium. In 2002, he joined the Paki-
stan Peoples Party and expanded the
Christian Liberation Front to fight for
equal rights for members of all minor-
ity communities. That same year, he
founded the All Pakistan Minorities
Alliance, or APMA.
In 2008, the Pakistan Peoples Party
government offered Shahbaz the post
of minister for minority affairs. He be-
came the first Christian parliamentar-
ian to become a federal minister—his
predecessors had only held ceremonial
state-level posts. Shahbaz used his
clout within the Benazir Bhutto admin-
istration to push for several reforms,
including a ban on the government’s
seizure and sale of land in places of
worship belonging to minorities, as
well as a 5-percent quota for minorities
in public posts.
In 2010, Shahbaz began receiving
death threats for attempting to amend
the blasphemy laws. He was one of
the most prominent actors in the Asia
Bibi case. Asia Bibi, who continues to
languish in prison, was convicted and
sentenced to death by a district court in
November 2010.
Several PPP leaders, including Sal-
man Taseer and Sherry Rehman, spoke
out in support of Asia Bibi and joined
Shahbaz in raising the demand for
amendments to the blasphemy law.
Taseer, the then governor of Punjab,
was assassinated by one of his body-
guards in Islamabad on 4 January 2011.
On 2 March the same year, two Taliban
gunmen opened fire at Shahbaz’s car
as he was leaving his Islamabad home.
His niece rushed out of the house only
to find Shahbaz dead, his body covered
in blood.
Four months before his murder,
Shahbaz, in an interview with the
BBC, described the threats he had been
receiving from extremists, and then
predicted his own death. “I believe in
Jesus Christ who has given his own life
for us,” he said. Referring to the Chris-
tian community, he added, “I will die to
defend their rights.”
while shahbaz was starting out as an
activist in his teens, another impor-
tant Christian figure from Khushpur
was becoming a voice for the minori-
ties of Pakistan. Bishop John Joseph
was ordained bishop of the diocese
of Faisalabad in 1984—the first indig-
enous bishop of Indian and Pakistani
Punjab. He was an “awami bishop”—a
people’s bishop—Nadeem said, with
a hint of pride. To these young activ-
ists from Khushpur, Joseph was an
enigma. While it is a common practice
for villagers to gain an education and
leave the village to pursue careers in
the city or use their connections with
the church to get settled abroad, Joseph
chose political activism to serve his
people.
above: Pakistani Christian women mourn
a victim of a church bombing in Lahore in
March 2016.
bk bangash / ap photo