Pakistan crisis draws comment, prayers from Church leaders
Episcopal News Service, London. January 2, 2008 [010208-01]
Matthew Davies
The recent assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the resulting civil unrest has caused Church leaders to speak out against the instability that has roiled the South Asian Islamic Republic for years and raise concerns for the welfare of the country's Christian community.
Pakistan-born Bishop Michael Nazir Ali of Rochester, England described Bhutto's "murder by extremists" as "a body blow for freedom and democracy in Pakistan."
Bhutto had returned to Pakistan on October 18, 2007 after years of exile following Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf granting her amnesty and dropping all corruption charges against her.
The first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, Bhutto served as Pakistan's Prime Minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996.
She was assassinated on December 27, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election in which she was a leading opposition candidate. The elections, originally set for January 8, have now been postponed until February 18.
Bhutto's assassination has triggered riots throughout the country that are responsible for at least 60 deaths.
As Muslims and Christians joined in prayers for Bhutto in the days following her assassination, violent scenes from Pakistan were displayed on television screens throughout the world.
The former Bishop of the Diocese of Raiwind in the Church of Pakistan, Nazir Ali had been a personal friend of Bhutto's for many years. Her death "raises serious questions about the government's ability to provide security for its citizens when even one as eminent as she can be killed in this way," he said. "I do hope the general elections can still be held and that the cause of democracy can survive this catastrophe."
Bhutto will always be remembered "for her commitment to Pakistan and her courage in public life," said Nazir Ali.
Bishop David James of the Anglican Diocese of Bradford, a Yorkshire city with one of the largest Pakistani populations in England, said, "Our heart goes out to her family at this time of desolating personal loss.
"Many in Bradford with relatives and friends in Pakistan will be anxious about the country's future, fearful that this tragedy will frustrate the return to democracy and a measure of normality," he added. "We pray at this time for Pakistan, that those responsible will be quickly apprehended and brought to justice and that this terrible crime will not lead to a downward spiral of political murders and further destabilization."
The president of the Pakistan Christian Congress (PCC), Nazir S. Bhatti, described Bhutto as "a great leader, a symbol of moderate Islam and a challenge for the militants."
"Pakistani Christians express [their] grief concerning the death of Benazir Bhutto and demand the immediate arrest of culprits and justice," he said.
Bhutto had expressed concern about Pakistani Christians and vowed to "pull them into mainstream politics," Bhatti said.
Inaugurated in 1970, the Church of Pakistan includes nine dioceses and is one of the four united churches in the Anglican Communion. Ecumenical in nature, the Church of Pakistan includes Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and Scottish Presbyterians.
Release International, a U.K.-based persecution watchdog, has expressed concern that Christians' lives in Pakistan are set to become increasingly dangerous in 2008. "In the growing turmoil it is becoming increasingly difficult to address persecution," said Release International's CEO Andy Dipper. "With the election imminent, pray also that the new government will give Christians and other minorities the same rights in law as the Muslim majority."