The Caravan — February 2018

59

bearing the cross · reportage

FEBRUARY 2018

petition itself hampered the release of

the other men. According to Ishtiaq,

once the court admitted the petition

for hearing, the police were bound to

present a challan for the physical re-

mand of the remaining men they had

detained—thus making their detentions

formal. “After that, we couldn’t help

them anymore.”

On the day of the blasts, the me-

dia had arrived a few hours after the

lynching. When television reporters

interviewed Javed, he took a hard line

and said, “Not only will we ensure that

those behind the lynching are hanged,

but we will help the police identify the

culprits as well.”

This statement lost Javed the local

government election by a margin of 180

votes. The supporters of the PTI can-

didate, Asif Sohail Khokar, played and

replayed the interview at his corner

meetings, and managed to convince the

people that anyone who supported the

PML(N) could not be trusted. Khokar

built his campaign around the PML(N)

government’s response to the blasts and

the lynching. The PML(N)’s politicians

had created an atmosphere of hatred

against people of Youhanabad, many of

whom complained of being beaten up

in the Muslim-majority town of Nishtar

and its surrounding neighbourhoods.

The communal sentiment around the

arrests following the lynching reached

a fever pitch when the deputy district

public prosecutor offered to help the

arrested suspects secure bail if they

converted to Islam. Irfan Masih, one of

the suspects, had reportedly retorted

that he was ready to be hanged if the

prosecutor converted to Christianity.

Despite this dynamic playing out in

the local elections, neither of the par-

ties’ leaders openly admit to mobilis-

ing people around communal issues.

Though he campaigned around the

government’s response to the lynching,

Khokar told me that his job is not to

meddle with an issue that is sub-judice,

but rather to serve the people through

solving problems such as the lack of

safe drinking water and the need for a

new graveyard. “I am confident that the

PML(N) will not dare contest an elec-

tion from Youhanabad in the general

election,” he said. “They have no sup-

port here.” According to Khokar, the

PTI have better knowledge of the pulse

of the people, refrain from stoking

communal tensions and focus on good

governance.

Javed agreed that organising

around “communal issues” could not

get a politician—even one from You-

hanabad—anywhere. “We need to get

out of our hidey holes and join main-

stream politics,” he told me. “The days

of organising around minorities’ is-

sues are over.”

As the leaders increasingly shy away

from minorities’ issues, there is a grow-

ing demand for electoral reforms. After

its founding, Pakistan had a system

of separate electorates for minorities.

Under the system, religious minorities

could only vote in elections for reserved

seats, and were barred from voting in

elections for unreserved seats. This

system continued up to 1956, after

which it was overturned. It was re-

km chaudary / ap photo