Fact-Checking Farahnaz Ispahani's Claims in "Purifying the Land of the Pure"

[Riaz Haq]

In "Purifying the Land of the Pure", the author Ms. Farahnaz Ispahani, the wife of Mr. Husain Haqqani who served as Pakistan's Ambassador in Washington from 2008 to 2011, asserts that "by 1949, the non-Muslim population of Pakistan had been significantly diluted.....the percentage of Muslims in the areas constituting Pakistan rose from 77% in 1941 to 83% in 1949".

In other words, the population of minorities, mostly Hindus, was 17% in 1949 in Pakistan. This included both east and west Pakistan. Let's examine what has happened to the minority population in Pakistan since 1971 when East Pakistan split off to form Bangladesh. More specifically, let's focus on the Hindu population that constitutes overwhelming majority of religious minorities population.

Hindu population of the areas that now constitute post-1971 Pakistan was 15% in 1931 India Census. It declined to 14% in 1941. Then first Pakistan Census in 1951 showed it was 1.3% after the massive cross-border migration of both Hindus and Muslims in 1947. During the partition, 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India from what became Pakistan, while over 8 million Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan. Since 1951, the Hindu population of what is now Pakistan has grown from 1.3% to 1.9% now.

Pew Research reported in 2017 that nearly half of India’s migrants are in just three countries: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and the United States. About 3.5 million Indians live in the UAE, the top destination country for Indian migrants. Over the past two decades, millions of Indians have migrated there to find employment as laborers. Pakistan has the second-largest number of Indian-born migrants, with 2 million who, according to the World Bank, send nearly $5 billion a year in remittances to their poor Muslim relatives in India.

The biggest exodus of Muslims from India was from the Indian Punjab where the Muslim population declined from 32% in 1941 to 0.8% in 1951.

Source: Hindustan Times

Muslims in Indian Punjab. Indian Census Data

Contrary to the sensational media headlines about declining Hindu population in Pakistan, the fact is that Hindu birth rate is significantly higher than the country's national average. Although Hindus make up only 1.9% of Pakistan's population, it is among the worlds fastest growing Hindu communities today, growing faster than the Hindu populations in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Hindu Population in West Pakistan Source: Census Data `Pakistan Census data. For 1931 and 1941, the figures are for West Pakistan in undivided India. For 1951 and 1961, the figures are for West Pakistan in undivided Pakistan. Data for 1971 could not be accessed. Hindu population of the areas that now constitute Pakistan was 15% in 1931 India Census. It declined to 14% in 1941 India Census. Then first Pakistan Census in 1951 showed it was 1.3% after the massive cross-border migration of both Hindus and Muslims in 1947. During the partition, 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India from what became Pakistan, while over 8 million Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan. Since 1951, the Hindu population of what is now Pakistan has grown from 1.3% to 1.9% now.

Top Countries With Hindu Populations Source: Pew Research Center

Fastest Growing Religions By Countries

Sindhi Hindu Woman

Hindu fertility rate (TFR) of 3.2 children per woman in Pakistan is much higher than national fertility rate of 2.86.  With 3.33 million Hindus, Pakistan is currently home to the world's 5th largest Hindu population. By 2050, Pakistan will rank 4th with 5.6 million Hindus, surpassing Indonesia which is currently ranked 4th largest Hindu country, according to Pew Research.

While it is true that some Pakistani Hindus have been targets of religious bigotry and intolerance by some extremists in the majority Muslim community, there are also many many examples of mutual tolerance and respect between Hindus and Muslims in the country.  In the city of Mithi in Sindh's Tharparkar district, for example,  Muslims do not slaughter cows out of respect for their fellow citizens of Hindu faith, and Hindus, out of respect for Muslim rites do not  have marriage celebrations during the month of Muharram. Hassan Raza, a student journalist, quoted a resident of a village near Mithi as saying:

"In our village, Hindus and Muslims have been living together for decades and there has not been a single day, when I have seen a religious conflict. No loud speaker is used for Azaan at the time when Hindus are worshiping in their temple, and no bells are rung when it is time for namaz. Nobody eats in public when it is Ramazan and Holi is played by every member of the village."

Diwali Celebration in Mithi, Pakistan

Another example is Rohiri in Sindh where a visiting Canadian-Indian Hindu diplomat saw a thriving Hindu community. Here's an except of how he describes his visit to Rohiri:

"One of the most interesting elements of the trip was visiting my father’s town, Rohiri, his birthplace. I found there was still a sizeable Hindu community there. That totally took me by surprise. We still think there was a massive religious cleansing in Pakistan and there were no Hindus left. Then I came across this family of shopkeepers who said, “Don’t worry about anything. Stay with us.” They gave me lunch and dinner and put me on the night train to Lahore. Talking to this family in the neighbourhood where my father grew up and was married was fascinating. The question that came to mind was why did my father’s family leave Pakistan and why are these people still here? Official figures suggest 14 million people were displaced after partition and that half a million to a million people were killed. And yet 60 years later these Hindu people in Rohiri are still there. They felt connected to the place where they were born. In the three towns I passed through I kept meeting Hindus — traders, professionals. Their numbers were small, 300 or 400 families in each of these towns. They have their own places of worship. I dared to ask: “Are you happy here?” and they said, “Yes, this is the land where we were born.”"

Pakistani Fashion Designer Deepak Perwani in Karachi

A successful Karachi-based Hindu Pakistani fashion designer Deepak Perwani said the following while talking to Indian media in 2012:

"People keep asking me, 'Oh you guys didn't migrate?', 'How are you treated there?' and so on. The questions show a lack of awareness." Perwani is part of Karachi's flourishing Hindu community, which is small but visible and influential even today. One lakh of Karachi's 1.3 crore population is Hindu.

As Perwani puts it, a lot of what people say about Pakistani Hindus shows "a lack of awareness".

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[Riaz Haq]

Number of Non #Muslim voters in #Pakistan jumps 30% in 5 years. Rises to 3.63 million in 2018 from 2.77 million in 2013. Total registered voters in 2018 is 105 million. #Hindus #Christians #Sikhs #Jews

In Pakistan, Non-Muslim Voters Up By 30%, Hindus Maintain Majority
The number of Hindu voters before 2013 polls was 1.40 million, higher than the collective number of all other minorities.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/in-pakistan-non-muslim-voters-up-by...

The number of non-Muslim voters in Pakistan has climbed to 3.63 million in 2018 with the Hindus at 1.77 million maintaining their majority among the religious minority electorate, according to a new voters' list prepared by authorities ahead of the general elections.

The non-Muslim voters have registered an increase of 30 per cent over the last five years, the Dawn newspaper reported citing an official document.

The number of voters belonging to religious minorities has climbed to 3.63 million in 2018 from 2.77 million as registered in electoral rolls for the 2013 general elections, it said.

According to the report, the number of Hindu voters before 2013 polls was 1.40 million, higher than the collective number of all other minorities.

The number of Hindu voters now stands at 1.77 million.

Hindu voters continue to maintain their majority among the minorities, but they no more constitute over half of total non-Muslim voters as was the case in 2013, according to the report.

They are mostly concentrated in the Sindh province, where in two districts they form over 40 per cent of total registered voters.

The current government led by the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) will complete its tenure on May 31 post which a caretaker regime will oversee the election which is proposed to be held on July 25.

A total of 105 million -- 59.2 million males and 46.7 million females -- constitute the electoral roll across the six provinces of Pakistan, which has a population of over 200 million, according to data on the website of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

A triangular contest between the governing PML-N led by prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan's PTI and former president Asif Ali Zardari's PPP is on the cards.

Christians form the second largest group of non-Muslim voters, totalling 1.64 million with over 1 million settled in Punjab followed by over 200,000 in Sindh. Their number has grown at a relatively high pace as compared to Hindu voters as it was 1.23 million before the 2013 general polls.

The total number of Ahmadi voters is 167,505 - most of whom dwell in Punjab, followed by Sindh and Islamabad. The number in 2013 stood at 115,966.

Of the total 8,852 Sikh voters, most are settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by Sindh and Punjab. Their presence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is more than their combined strength in Balochistan and Islamabad. They numbered 5,934 in 2013.

The number of Parsi voters has grown from 3,650 in 2013 to 4,235. Majority of them are settled in Sindh followed by KP. The number of Buddhist voters has increased from 1,452 in 2013 to 1,884. Most of them live in Sindh and Punjab.

There are a total of 31,543 voters from the Bahai community on the electoral rolls.

The report, based on official document, makes no mention of Jewish voters in Pakistan, though in 2013 there were 809 Jewish voters in the country 427 women and 382 men.

While the district-wise data of non-Muslim voters is yet to be prepared, according to official statistics related to 2013 elections, Umerkot and Tharparkar districts in Sindh had as high percentage as 49 per cent and 46 per cent of total voters, respectively.

The voting lists have been updated ahead of election scheduled to be held on July 25.

[Riaz Haq]

Total number of registered #Pakistan #voters in 2018 up 23% from 2013 general #elections. Non #Muslim voters up 30% over 5 years.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1409521

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday published the final electoral rolls ahead of General Elections 2018.

According to the rolls, 105.96 million voters will be able to cast their vote in the upcoming elections. Of these, 59.22m are male and 46.73m are females, with the gender gap between male and female rising to around 12.5m.

According to the figures, 55.9 per cent of the registered voters in Pakistan are males while only 44.1pc are females.

The numbers are approximately 23 per cent higher than the figures for the 2013 elections when the total number of voters stood at 86.19m.

Punjab tops the list with the largest number of voters with a total of 60.67m voters (23pc increase from 2013), of which 33.68m are male and 26.99m are female. A total of 22.39m voters (18pc increase over 2013) are registered in Sindh, according to the figures proved by the ECP, of which 12.44m are male and 9.95m are female.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the third largest province of the country, is home to 15.32m registered voters (25pc higher than 2013) including 8.71m male and 6.61m female voters. Balochistan has a total of 4.3m registered voters — 29pc more than 2013 — including 2.49m male and 1.81m female voters.

In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), 2.51m voters would be able to exercise their right of voting while 0.77m are registered with the ECP from the capital territory.

The publishing of electoral rolls comes as the commission awaits president's final decision on the exact dates of the elections and a name for the caretaker prime minister.

ECP on Monday proposed July 25-27 as possible dates for the upcoming elections and forwarded a summary in this regard to President Mamnoon Hussain, requesting him to set one of the proposed dates as the day of the polls according to Elections Act 2017, Section 57(1).

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan population 2017 results by religion:

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1719994/1-headcount-finalised-sans-thi...

Muslims constituted 96.28% of the total population in 1998, but 19 years later the share of Muslims in total population increased to 96.47%.

Since overall population increased by 75.4 million persons, followers of all religions have grown in absolute terms.

The incidence of Hindu population increased from 1.6% to 1.73% or 3.593 million individuals. The population share of scheduled castes also increased from 0.25% to 0.41%, according to unofficial final results.

The share of Christian population, however, decreased from 1.59% of the total population in 1998 to 1.27% in 2017. Similarly, the population of Ahamdis also decreased from 0.22% to just 0.09%.

The population share of other religions also reduced from 0.07% to 0.02%.

[Riaz Haq]

In a first, #Pakistan appoints #Hindu #woman Suman Bodani underdeveloped rural area of Sindhas civil #judge https://tribune.com.pk/story/1898858/1-first-pakistan-appoints-hind...

For the first time in Pakistan’s judicial history a woman belonging to Hindu community has been appointed as civil and judicial magistrate.

Suman Bodani, hailing from Sindh’s Shahdadkot district, was declared eligible for the post after passing her judicial officers’ examination with flying colours – securing 54th position on the merit list, Express News reported on Monday.

Speaking to a foreign news outlet, Bodani said she belonged to an underdeveloped rural area of Sindh, where she witnessed poor struggling to cope with various challenges life throws at them. “They cannot even afford to lodge cases, and that is the reason behind my decision of joining law [studies] so I can bring justice to them,” she was quoted as saying.

After completing her intermediate from her native town Shahdadkot, Bodani persuaded law and acquired Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Hyderabad and Master of Laws (LLM) from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) in Karachi.

Bodani also said she faced resistance form her own community as they did not like girls working in the law field. However, her family including her father and siblings extended their full support to her. “My family did not pay any heed to what people would say and helped me achieve my goal.”

Last year, Justice Syeda Tahira Safdar made history after becoming the first woman chief justice of a high court in the country.

She was also the first woman appointed as a civil judge in Balochistan and holds the distinction of being the first woman in the province appointed as a judge in the Balochistan High Court.

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan Govt Sacks Minister Fayyaz Chohan For ‘Anti-#Hindu’ Remarks. https://www.thequint.com/news/world/pak-min-fayyaz-ul-chohan-axed-a...

akistani Punjab's Information Minister Fayyaz-ul Hassan Chohan of the ruling PTI has been sacked after facing severe criticism from members of his party for making derogatory remarks about Hindus.

The PTI government in Pakistan’s Punjab on Tuesday, 5 March, tweeted that it had “removed Fayyaz Chohan from the post of Punjab Information Minister following derogatory remarks about the Hindu community”.

“Bashing someone’s faith should not be a part of any narrative. Tolerance is the first and foremost pillar on which Pakistan was built,” the party had said.


‘Cow Urine-Drinking People’
Chohan had referred to the Hindu community as "cow urine-drinking people" at a recent press conference, as per IANS.

"We are Muslims and we have a flag, the flag of Maula Ali's bravery, the flag of Hazrat Umar's valour. You (Hindus) don't have that flag, it isn't in your hands," he had said.

"Don't operate under the delusion that you're seven times better than us. What we have, you can't have, you idol worshippers," he had said in a video that went viral on social media.

‘Won’t Tolerate Remarks Against Minority’
His remarks were condemned by Prime Minister Imran Khan and other key political leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) for his insensitivity towards the Hindus, a minority in Pakistan.

Khan had termed Chohan's remarks "inappropriate" and said, "We will not tolerate remarks against any minority community."

The minister had then apologised and said his comments were directed only at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian media.
fbtw
"I was referring to Narendra Modi, RAW and Indian media," he said on Samaa TV's programme Naya Din on Tuesday. "The remarks weren't meant for any person in Pakistan. My message was for Indians.”

"I didn't demean any religion. The things I said are a part of Hindutva. I said things that are a part of their religion," he added.

Also Read : Pakistan Minister slammed over anti-Hindu remarks

But it seems the statements failed to quell anger. PTI's leader Naeemul Haque said, as per IANS, "The derogatory and insulting remarks against the Hindu community by Fayyaz Chohan... The PTI government will not tolerate this nonsense from a senior member of the government or from anyone. Action will be taken after consulting the Chief Minister."

Ministers of Human Rights Shireen Mazari tweeted, "Absolutely condemn this. No one has the right to attack anyone else's religion. Our Hindu citizens have given sacrifices for their country.”

“Our Prime Minister’s message is always of tolerance and respect and we cannot condone any form of bigotry or spread of religious hatred,” she added.
fbtw
Finance Minister Asad Umar had also condemned the remarks. He said, "Hindus of Pakistan are as much a part of the fabric of the nation as I am. Remember the flag of Pakistan is not just green... it is not complete without the white which represents the minorities."

[Riaz Haq]

#Hindu #Dalit female lawmaker Krishna Kumari chairs #Pakistan Senate on Women’s Day. #WomensDay #DoYouKnowRealPakistan,” https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/441328-hindu-female-lawmaker-chai...

Pakistan Senate’s first Thari Hindu woman, Krishna Kumari Kolhi on the occasion of International Women’s Day is chairing a session of the Upper House on Friday.


Senator Faisal Javed made the announcement on Twitter of Kohli chairing the session to commemorate the International Women’s Day being celebrated across the globe.

“Chairman Senate of Pakistan decided to make our colleague Krishna Kumari Kohli aka Kishoo Bai to Chair the Senate for today on #WomensDay #DoYouKnowRealPakistan,” he tweeted.

Before starting the session, Kolhi expressed her gratitude for being given the chance: “I consider myself very fortunate today to be sitting on this seat, I salute Pakistan and I salute Pakistan’s people and I am proud to be a Pakistani and only Pakistani.”

The 39-year-old Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader hailing from Nagarparkar in the vicinity of Tharparkar became the first one in the senate to have roots from an isolated caste.