Paul Bhatti: the outcome of the Jaranwala trial is the result of a sick ideology
In Trieste for the Social Week of Italian Catholics, the brother of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Minorities Minister killed in 2011, spoke about a recent trial that has reopened wounds for the country’s Christian community over its blasphemy rules. For Paul Bhatti, the government must ensure that “no one can teach a person to kill or die in the name of religion.”
Trieste (AsiaNews) – After his assassination in March 2011 in Islamabad, world leaders spared no words to honour the memory and work of Shahbaz Bhatti.
About 10,000 people gathered for the funeral in Khushpur of the far-sighted Catholic political leader, appointed in 2008 as Pakistan’s first Minorities Minister, but for Paul Bhatti, a medical doctor working in Treviso, northeastern Italy, he was simply "my brother".
This is how he introduced himself in Trieste’s Giuseppe Verdi Square last Friday, guided by presenter Lorena Bianchetti, at one of the events organised for the 50th Social Week of Italian Catholics, which ended yesterday with Pope Francis’s visit.
The gathering was especially important after Pakistan’s Christian community saw old wounds reopen following the end of a trial connected to the outburst of anti-Christian violence in August 2023 in Jaranwala, Punjab.
In a recent decision, the local anti-terrorism court in Sahiwal, chaired by Judge Ziaullah Khan, convicted a 22-year-old Christian man while the culprits of the violence continue to benefit from impunity.
Episodes like this show how necessary it is to uphold Shahbaz Bhatti’s legacy, focusing on the blasphemy law, often used to accuse minorities.
“This climate still exists because it is based on an ideology that comes from education," Paul Bhatti told AsiaNews at the end of the Social Week. More than 50 per cent of people are illiterate, trained to live and die. Then someone uses them as tools.”
After Shabhaz's death, Paul Bhatti continued his brother's work for a period by becoming special advisor to then Prime Minister Gilani at the same ministry, which took the name of National Harmony in July 2011.
“There should be political stability that leads to real reforms," he explained; for example, “working with Muslim friends, we promoted a law to protect Christians (about 1.6 per cent of the population).”
Bhatti would like to see action to stop mobs of thousands turn on small communities, stirred by false accusations, without police standing idly by.
“First, safety and protection should be guaranteed, so that there will be no more victims in the future. We need a military force that acts effectively," Paul Bhatti told AsiaNews.
“Then, penalties must also be imposed on those who abuse the blasphemy law. It should be officially stated that no one can teach a person to kill or die in the name of religion.”
Earlier, during the public talk in Trieste, he stated that “extremists, fanatical people, who take the law in their own hands, I don't think they belong to religion.”
Shahbaz Bhatti was a victim of an extremist ideology that opposed his aversion to the blasphemy law.
Paul Bhatti also spoke about the relationship he had with his brother, between Italy and Pakistan.
“I knew Shahbaz as a younger brother. I didn't know him as a person who devoted his life to Pakistan, who tried to unite various faiths, who tried to eliminate hatred from the country,” he explained.
After rushing back to Pakistan for the funeral, which drew lots of people from different backgrounds, he met with the then President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, husband of Benazir Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan, who was killed in a suicide attack in 2007.
This led him to decide to stay, otherwise "no one would work for unity, dialogue, strength, against an ideology that we need to eliminate. Shahbaz's mission had to continue," he told the people, about 500, attending the Social Week.
In Verdi Square, he talked about Shahbaz Bhatti's commitment to improving the conditions of Asia Bibi, a young Christian woman on death row for blasphemy.
“Shahbaz was convinced, first of all, regardless of whether the law is right or wrong, that she had not committed this crime," Paul said, noting that other people are in a similar situation.
When Shahbaz was appointed minister, threats against him intensified, especially following the assassination of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, a Muslim who also came to Asia Bibi’s defence.
“In addition to love for Pakistan, Shahbaz had a strong faith. In his spiritual testament he says that he would have felt fortunate if during this struggle Jesus had accepted the sacrifice of his life," he added.
Shahbaz Bhatti's Bible is now in Rome, in the Basilica of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, dedicated to the "new martyrs".
Many now hope to see in the not-so-distant future the completion of the process of beatification by martyrdom in odium fidei, promoted by the Archdiocese of Islamabad. But it is a long journey.
“We need people to speak about him, and have what they say recorded," Paul Bhatti told AsiaNews. Meanwhile, hope lives on.
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