Contents

Problem Faced by F7 Christian Colony 2

Abstract 2
1. 3
2. 4
4. 6
5. 6
6. 7
7. 8
8. 9
9. 10
10. 10
References 8
 Problem Faced by Christian Community of Pakistan: A Case Study Of
Christian Colony in F7 Islamabad.

Abstract
The minorities in Pakistan, especially the Christians, are not just entitled to practice their religious
tradition, but they are also entitled to the protection of life, liberty, and property by the state and
its authorities. It is the duty of the state to provide these minorities with the essential needs of
livings such as shelter, education, and health care as well. However, in Pakistan there is a large
disparity and dichotomy between what is written in the constitution and what is practically
witnessed in the country. In Islamabad, the biggest example of this devastation is witnessed in one
of the most developed sectors F7. In this sector, there is a small Christian Community that resides
which is facing severe lack of facilitation by all the government authorities and machinery.
Popularly known as the Paris Colony, this small Christian minority slum is in an extremely bad
condition where the people are facing issues such as lack of sanitation and clean water supply,
lack of health care, lack of education, and no development funds. Also, the government has many
a times even threatened this community that their homes would be demolished soon as they do not
comply with the standards of the city.
1. Introduction
Pakistan, as an Islamic state, provides rights to minorities living in the country through its
constitution1. According to these rights, the minorities are not just entitled to practice their
religious tradition, but they are also entitled to the protection of life, liberty, and property by the
state and its authorities. It is the duty of the state to provide these minorities with the essential
needs of livings such as shelter, education, and health care as well. However, in Pakistan there is
a large disparity and dichotomy between what is written in the constitution and what is practically
witnessed in the country2.

In Islamabad, the biggest example of this disparity and dichotomy is witnessed in one of the most
aesthetically beautiful and developed sectors F7. In this sector, there is a small Christian
Community that resides which is facing severe lack of facilitation by all the government authorities
and machinery. Popularly known as the Paris Colony, this small Christian minority slum is in an
extremely bad condition where the people are facing issues such as lack of sanitation and clean
water supply, lack of health care, lack of education, and no development funds. Moreover, the
government has many a times even threatened this community that their homes would be
demolished soon as they do not comply with the standards of the city.

If such a situation occurs where the government decides to pursue such a campaign to demolish
these slums, what would be the future of these Christians and how would they go about living their
lives in the City. This research is an effort to go and study the major issues facing the people living
in this minority community and to assess their conditions. Through this, we endeavor to gain a
sound understanding of the problems faced by this community and then to communicate these
problems to the administrative authorities of the city so that the constitutional rights of these people
can be protected, and they are provided with necessary facilitation rather than their homes being
destroyed and demolished, which would be a exacerbating situation.

1
Khan, H. (2001). Constitutional and Political History of Pakistan. Oxford University Press.
2
Malik, I. (2002). Religious Minorities in Pakistan. Minority Rights Group International
2. Statement of Problem
The F7 Christian Colony is a small troubled colony in one of Islamabad’s most developed sectors,
but due to some major administrative issues they are facing severe lack of facilitation. This means
that they are not even provided their constitutional rights as well.

3. Literature Review

A number of articles have highlighted this issue in various contexts. In this part of the research,
we shall go through some important literature that would give us an understanding and background
of the entire issue that is being faced by minorities not just in Islamabad but in the entire country
as well.

According to Niaz-ul-haq, the Christians in Islamabad are facing a ghetto in the city which refers
to the fact that they are being more and more marginalized. The author has used this word “Ghetto”
to describe the conditions of these minorities as this word was previously used to describe the
conditions of the marginalized Jews in the European Subcontinent. Hence, this world is used for
the people living in a city or a country but are not a part of its mainstream. This means that the
people are ill-treated politically and economically. The author states that he has himself witnessed
the situation of Christians in the slums of Islamabad, which consist of both young and old people
who are living their lives as peasants. Furthermore, Niaz-ul-Haq states that these people are
expected to bow down to the authorities and are also witnessed to live as dogs waiting to be given
crumbs to eat3.

According to scholars, Pakistan was built upon the notion of interfaith harmony, whereby the flag
was incorporated with the sacred color of which represents the minorities and their rights in the
country. The authors state that this as a Pakistani should force us to support these minorities living
in Islamabad and that we should make sure that they are receiving all the facilities and essentials.
The author even further says that by becoming indifferent to their plight, we as Pakistani’s are
indulging in severe criminality and that we should be ashamed of ourselves4.

3
Niaz-Ul-Haq. (2017). The Christian ghetto in Islamabad. The Nation.

4
Minority Rights Group International. (2014). Searching for Security: The Rising Marginalization
of Religious Communities in Pakistan.
Reviewing another important piece of writing by Faraz Talal in the DAWN Newspaper, there are
a number of things mentioned. Firstly, the author has portrayed the actions of the current
government to be against human rights where the government first carried out a catastrophe against
the minorities in I-11 which left thousands of people homeless and now, the same acts are being
repeated again by the administration. Secondly, the narrative made by the administrative agencies
is really ironical. The CDA submitted a report to the Supreme Court in which they alleged that this
small community in the F7 sector has actually taken over the territory of the government, but this
wasn’t the shaming part of it. The shaming part of the report was when it identified the influx of
Christians in the capital as a threat to the Muslim superiority in the city. This document used the
term ugly to describe these slums which, according to the author, is a shameful way to describe
and instead of helping these people, the government is involved in creating further problems for
them5.

In the report, it is written that “They’re ugly slums which present bad picture even (more) than
ancient slums of neighboring city of Rawalpindi”. This directly points to the attitude of bigotry
adopted by the government authorities. The author states that a part of this report is witnessed to
be taken out of the diary of an elitist and stereotypical adolescent in Islamabad. And lastly, the
most upsetting and ironic part of this report was the implication that the Christian minority religion
in the city is the real problem where by the religion of these residents of Christian colony.

5
Talat, F. (2015). ‘Get rid of Christians, keep Islamabad clean’: CDA’s Donald Trump moment. DAWN News.
4. Objectives
The overall objectives of this study include as follows:

A. To gain a sound understanding of the issues faced by the F7 Christian Community.

B. To study the role of CDA and government institutions.

C. To communicate the message of these minorities to the country.

5. Methodology
According to scholars, the research methodology is considered to be pivotal aspect of a research.
So, the research methodology must be chosen very carefully in order to deduce effective results.

a. Research Philosophy

The Research philosophy is tilted towards objectivism with certain elements of subjectivism as
well. Through the carrying out of field work as well as readings different articles, an objective plus
subjective result is to be concluded that will be supported by the objective observations, interviews
and narratives from different authors. Furthermore, through the support of objective events that
were carried out in Islamabad, we shall conclude different concepts.

b. Research Approach

This research will use the inductive approach. This is used for the purpose of gathering as much
as data and then we would analyze the data. This analysis would then help us in concluding the
overall results of the topic in hand. The overall gathered data is taken from different interviews
and articles that are all the primary and secondary sources of data, respectively. Furthermore, this
inductive approach promotes in-depth research on the topic chosen and then it supports the
maximum amount of data collection for the purpose of understanding, analyzing, and interpreting
the data. The overall approach included techniques such as open-ended interviews from the sample
population.

c. Sampling of data
The data sample for this research were the few interviews which were taken by direct field work.
The sample included the senior citizens from the Christian community in the F7 colony. The
sample was chosen very carefully and only those people who had a sound understanding and
knowledge of the issues were taken in to consideration for this purpose.

d. Exploratory Study

The nature of the study is exploratory as this includes mostly exploration of the issues that are
faced by the Christian colony in the F7 region. Through exploration, we shall provide an analysis
on the topic.

6. Data collection
All data gathered in this research is through different primary and secondary sources. The form of
data that is gathered is mostly quantitative as well as qualitative in nature. Therefore, the design of
data collection is that we would go through the study and analysis of interviews as well as opinion
articles in order to reach a conclusion and to provide further recommendations.

In the Interviews there were a number of questions asked and their answers were recorded. In this
section, we shall transcribe those interviews.

Q1. What is you biggest Problem in this Area?

Ans. There are a lot of problems in this locale where the system of water and sanitation is severely
poor and people are ousted from the very basic needs. Furthermore, there is no gas as well that
further exacerbates our living conditions here.

Q2. What is the Health care situation here?

Ans. Because of the poor sanitation system our children and even ourselves fall ill regularly and
there are no such government dispensaries at our disposal.

Q3. Has the Government Provided any assistance?

Ans. There has been no such help from the side of the government and on the other hand, we even
have government representatives coming regularly to threaten us to leave this place which is our
home. Where do they expect us to go then? We can’t live on the roads.

Q4. Has anyone ever threatened you over religious problems?

Ans. Yes. Many big land owners of the city and even the government have threatened us to leave
this place otherwise they could impose blasphemy on us. We have been persecuted many a times
because of our religion and religious values. We have always felt marginalized.

7. Data Analysis
According to the data analyzed, we can say that the Christian in Pakistan have the following
rights:

Source: Democracy Reporting International, 2016

But the research shows that they are not being given these rights and hence they are being more
and more marginalized.
The themes regarding questions are as follows:
A. Lack of political rights.
Q. Are you given any representation in Islamabad?
Ans. No. We have been politically marginalized.
Q. Do you have freedom of expression?
Ans. No, we have been limited in our political freedoms, especially freedom of
expression.
 Q. Are you given your constitutional rights?
No. We have even protested so many times.
B. Lack of Economic opportunities.
Q. Are you treated equally in the market?
Ans. No. The reason for our poor situation is that no ones gives us a good job because of
our religion. This means that we are only limited to cleaning roads and sewers.
C. Lack of Sanitation and Water.
Q. What is the situation of water and sanitatiion?
Ans. We are the ones who go around cleaning all the city but when it comes to our own
homes, the water and sanitation is extremely dirty.
Q. Your biggest problem?
Ans. There are a lot of problems in this locale where the system of water and sanitation is
severely poor and people are ousted from the very basic needs

D. Lack of Health Care

Q. What is the situation of health care?
Ans. Because of the poor sanitation system our children and even ourselves fall ill
regularly and there are no such government dispensaries at our disposal.

E. Religious Persecution and exploitation.

Q. . Has anyone ever threatened you over religious problems?
Ans. Yes. Many big land owners of the city and even the government have threatened us
to leave this place otherwise they could impose blasphemy on us. We have been
persecuted many a times because of our religion and religious values. We have always
felt marginalized.

Overall, the data analysis tells us that the Christian community is witnessing a plethora of
problems in various domains such as politics, economics, and even cultural as well. The
problems are exacerbating each and everyday. The government has shown reluctance to assist
these people who are in severe plight. Furthermore, they are also facing threats of persecution
because of their religion and they have not been treated equally at all.

8. Limitations
There were a number of limitations in the process which included:
a. Lack of resources.
b. Lack of capacity.
c. Time Shortage.
9. Results and Discussion
The results show that the Christian minority although having rights by the constitution are being
persecuted by the government and the elites the city of Islamabad. The Small Christian Community
that resides which is facing severe lack of facilitation by all the government authorities and
machinery. Popularly known as the Paris Colony, this small Christian minority slum is in an
extremely bad condition where the people are facing issues such as lack of sanitation and clean
water supply, lack of health care, lack of education, and no development funds. Furthermore, the
government has many a times even threatened this community that their homes would be
demolished soon as they do not comply with the standards of the city.

Overall, this shows that the problems faced by the Christian Minorities in Pakistan are Multi-
faceted and are very intricate in nature. These problems are in various domains such as economic,
political, cultural, and religious domains. The issues have not been addressed by the government
and very few issues have been taken up by the human rights groups operating in the capital. In the
end, we would strongly urge the government to provide these people their constitutional rights and
stop being indifferent to their plight.

10.Recommendations
● It is strongly recommended to all the research and human rights institutes working in
Islamabad to take notice of this potential disaster that is likely to occur as the Christian are
likely to suffer from a plethora of dangerous reasons and they can even become homeless
as a result of this.
● Human Rights Watch should intervene and advocates for their rights. Even the Pakistani
government should support them as it is their constitutional right. However, if this minority
colony does not get justice, they should strive towards the establishment of a strong
political movement of Christians. No matter what system of election, this should be
encouraged across social media.
● The minority representatives in the legislative assembly of the country should address this
issues and take notice of this.
References
Niaz-Ul-Haq. (2017). The Christian ghetto in Islamabad. The Nation.
Talat, F. (2015). ‘Get rid of Christians, keep Islamabad clean’: CDA’s Donald Trump moment. DAWN
News.
Khan, H. (2001). Constitutional and Political History of Pakistan. Oxford University Press.
Malik, I. (2002). Religious Minorities in Pakistan. Minority Rights Group International
Minority Rights Group International. (2014). Searching for Security: The Rising Marginalization
of Religious Communities in Pakistan.