منیر انکوائری رپورٹ

منیر انکوائری رپورٹ

In 1952-53, a movement was launched by various religio-political groups – especially by leaders associated with Majlis-i-Ahrar – to get the Ahmadis declared as non-Muslims. In addition, leaders of the movement demanded that Sir Zafarullah Khan – the foreign minister of Pakistan at that time – should be dismissed because of his Ahmadi faith. The movement reached a crescendo in the first week of March 1953 resulting in the imposition of Martial Law in Lahore.

Although the conflict has long standing origins, the disturbances began in February 1953 when Khawaja Nazim-ud-din, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, rejected an ultimatum issued by the All Pakistan Muslim Parties Convention in January 1953. The proposal called for removal of Ahmadis from all positions of power. As a result of breakdown in negotiations, leaders of the movement resorted to direct action. Protests and riots against the Ahmadis broke out in Punjab and they lasted until April 1953. Official figures report that 25 people – mostly protestors – were killed and 100 injured; however, it is believed that these figures were severely under reported. The British High Commission in their report, for example, claimed 500 casualties with the admission that the actual figure could be up to 1000.

Following the riots of 1952-53, the Punjab government constituted a special court of inquiry to probe the disturbances in Punjab. The court of inquiry was headed by Mr. Justice Muhammad Munir (Chief Justice) along with Mr. Justice M.R. Kayani and Abdul Aziz Khan. The court addressed three main areas: a) the responsibility of the disturbances b) the circumstances leading to the declaration of Martial Law in Lahore and c) the adequacy of the measures taken by the Provincial Government to prevent and deal with the disturbances. As part of the inquiry, the court summoned witnesses, cross examined them, recorded their written statements, collected information from police and special branch, and a number of other sources to finalize its findings. The report submitted by the court of inquiry was published in 1954 by Government Printing Press in Lahore and popularly known as the “Munir Report”. This project is based on the record of the court of inquiry and the evidence collected by it.

The cover photo of this project is taken from the special issue of an Ahrari newspaper, Azad, published from Lahore in September 1952. The photo shows Mirza’iyyat – a derogatory term used for the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – as a poisonous snake with its tentacles all over Pakistan, and Zafarullah Khan as the other head of the poisonous snake. On top of the poster is the figure of Allama Iqbal who is quoted as saying: “The government should declare Ahmadis as a separate sect from the Muslims”. This image captures the troubled history of persecution and marginalization faced by Ahmadis in Pakistan, especially after 1953. In 1974, the parliament unanimously passed the second constitutional amendment to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims. A presidential ordinance issued in 1984 made it a criminal offence for Ahmadis to ‘pose’ themselves as Muslims or to practice rituals or use verbal expressions generally associated with Islam and, thus, ‘copyrighted’ by Muslims only. Although theological polemics between Ahmadis and their opponents date back to the British period, the process of criminalization of Ahmadi identity and faith in Pakistan starts from the anti-Ahmadiyyah riots of 1953. The evidence documenting the details of this violence will help scholars and readers understand the complexity of this troubled history.