Human Rights Case No. 20171-B of 2018 (Order to officially refer to Christians as ‘Masihi’ instead of ‘Esai’)

Date of hearing: 11.05.2018
Court: Supreme Court of Pakistan (Original Jurisdiction)
Present: Mr. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, HCJ
MR. JUSTICE IJAZ UL AHSAN
Name: Human Rights Case No. 20171-B OF 2018 (In the matter regarding murder of non-payment of victims of terrorist attack on church in Quetta on 17.12.2017)

The order was given by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, in response to a terrorist attack which took place in the Methodist Church in Quetta where eight persons lost their lives and 58 were injured. The federal and provincial governments promised a compensation package to the victims (Rs. 1 million for each deceased, Rs. 500,000/- for each critically injured and Rs. 100,000/- each for less critically injured) for which the federal government made Rs. 26.4 million available to the provincial government to be distributed as compensation. Since only eight applications claiming compensation had been submitted by the time the order was made, in order to expedite the process of compensation, a transfer of the compensation funds into the account of the sessions judge Quetta was ordered so that all applications were disposed of, within a month. Disappointed by the slow process of compensation, the court ordered members of the District Compensation Committee to appear before it to explain the delay.

In addition to this, the court pondered over a complaint where the use of the word ‘Esai’ was objected to. Referring to the Council of Islamic Ideology’s decision in its 175th meeting held on 28-29th September 2009, where it was decided that there was no harm as per Islamic injections to refer to adherents of Christianity as ‘Masihi’ (a term they preferred) instead of ‘Esai’ (the more commonly used term), the court noted that no steps to incorporate this into practice had been taken by the government. Therefore, the court ordered that this be implemented and that all official records, documents and correspondence would from the date of this order refer to the members of the Christian community as ‘Masihi’ instead of ‘Esai’.