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Impoverished Christians face forced eviction

Hundreds of Christian residents in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore may be forced off their land in the face of soaring land values. The area, known as Yohanabad-II, was established in 1998 on the outskirts of the city as a model village but rumours of planned redevelopment of adjacent areas have created a problem for residents. Residents report that local ‘land mafia’ are now desperate to get their hands on the land and are attempting to harass around 400 families out of their homes. The land mafia are alleged to work with local police who assist them by making arrests in order to force families out. The issue arose after land prices in the area increased rapidly over the course of the past two years. The fact that major housing schemes are planned adjacent to the area, building new access roads, power supply lines and other facilities, is a key factor in the rapid rise in property values. At present, the Yohanabad-II area, lacks many such amenities. Residents also say that in some cases, representatives of the new schemes have attempted to persuade the Christians to sell their land at prices far below the market rate. "Because we are poor, they think they can convince us to take small amounts and vacate the land. But we know the actual rates are now much higher and these will continue to go up as the area is developed," said Yousaf Masih, who bought a plot in the locality in 1999. He has since built a small house on the land. The Yohanabad-II neighbourhood is neatly divided into several hundred plots on each of which houses have been constructed. It was originally secured by the Roman Catholic Church of Pakistan in the late 1990s and used to re-settle impoverished Christians who had been evicted from shantytowns across Lahore. The area was exclusively reserved for them and in 1999, those seeking land in the colony, paid for a plot in instalments amounting to the equivalent of about US $600. An NGO, Caritas, affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church, collected the money and issued receipts as proof of purchase. The colony was dedicated to the late Bishop John Joseph who committed suicide in May 1998 in the southern Punjab town of Sahiwal. He shot himself in public at a rally to protest against the country's controversial blasphemy laws. Currently, if an individual goes to the police and simply accuses someone of blasphemy, the police have to make an immediate arrest before an investigation. Bishop Joseph played a key role in persuading the church to establish the low-income housing scheme. Blasphemy laws were introduced during British colonial rule, before the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947. Late President General Zia ul Haq added new provisions in the 1980s, apparently to appease Muslim religious hardliners and thereby garner support after he took control of the government in a 1977 coup. Christians make up less than two percent of Pakistan's 142 million population and are often ghettoised into living in closed Christian villages or in enclaves exclusively inhabited by those sharing their religion. Human rights organisations speak of a ‘religious apartheid’ to which all Pakistani non-Muslims are subjected. Christians are also disadvantaged at school and when applying for jobs, rights groups say. The Yohanabad-II residents are being offered the same amount of money they paid for the land years ago in order to persuade them to leave. They argue this amount is now a paltry sum and that as the rightful owners of the property, they should benefit from the speculative rise in land prices. "Some people here have spent large amounts of money to build their homes. They have nowhere to go," said Father James, a priest who works with the community in the area. Women who live in Yohannabad are often left alone at home during the day and have been the victims of intimidation and harassment by men from the land mafia that have sprung up, say rights activists. Residents of the area recently attended a meeting and appealed to Asma Jehangir, a leading lawyer and chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) to take up their case. "We have received the papers and the complaints of Yohanabad residents. We will conduct a fact-finding in the area and then decide on the next course of action," commented HRCP's, legal officer, Mehboob Ahmed Khan. While this case involves an entire colony, it is not the only incident in which members of a minority religious community have been forced off land in Pakistan. At least three cases have been reported in the last year in Faislabad, 150 km west of Lahore and in Lahore city. In each instance, Christians have been pressurised to sell their homes and land at low prices. Some say they have been threatened with legal action against them under controversial blasphemy laws if they fail to comply. "Minorities are especially vulnerable to the blasphemy laws and in various cases have been accused merely because somebody wished to seize their property," Khan said. Christians in Lahore and throughout Pakistan are keenly watching the outcome of the Yohanabad-II case. "If the authorities fail to take action, it only shows that Christians have no security in this country," Father James said.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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