Chinese workers unsafe in Pakistan amid blasphemy accusations

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 18 : Foreign workers, especially those Chinese working on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, find working in Pakistan increasingly unsafe. To the terror attacks is now added the spectre of blasphemy.

Incidents of terrorism and sectarian violence extend from the Karakorum Highway in the north to Gwadar port in the south, threatening China's multi-billion investments in CPEC, which is its flagship of the Belt and Roads Initiative (BRI) in operation in scores of countries.

An unnamed Chinese national, working on the Dasu Hydropower Project in the north was on April 17 taken into protective custody and flown out to safer Abbottabad after Pakist workers on the project accused him of blasphemy.

Blasphemy is an extremely emotive issue in Pakistan where a British-era law has been strengthened during the regime of military dictator Zia ul Haq. A mere suspicion can land the victim in the arms of angry crowds.

The Dasu project is where nine Chinese workers were killed in 2021 when terrorists exploded their vehicles. The Chinese insisted on sending their investigation team and security measures were enhanced. Two weeks later, yet another Chinese national was shot and wounded in an attack in Karachi at the southern end.

Pakistan's largest city was where a Baloch woman militant blew herself at the Confucius Centre killing four Chinese staff. China was forced to close down all its cultural centres. The Chinese workers generally live in stized camps.

In last week's incident, workers incensed by the blasphemy allegation tried to break into a Chinese camp near Barseen. A large number of people reached Komila and repeatedly blocked the Karakoram Highway, shouting slogans, Dawn newspaper reported on April 17, 2023. The highway is the northern head of the CPEC.

The safety of Chinese workers, estimated at 60,000-plus depending upon the work on the numerous projects, has been a major Sino-Pak concern. Pakistan has raised a full army division, plus a para-military force to stize the highway. But it has no answer to sabotage by tribal militants who resent the Chinese presence and to socio-religious issues like blasphemy.

Blasphemy ostensibly comes in handy for Pakist workers to settle scores with their foreign supervisors and engineers. In January 2021, a Sri Lankan manager was lynched and burnt because he ordered the removal of some stickers on the packages that the workers alleged bore quotations from the holy Quran. Like the Chinese supervisor last week, the Lankan knew no Arabic.

In January 2022, the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) reported that 89 citizens were killed in 1,415 accusations and cases of blasphemy in Pakistan since independence. Women, and religious and ethnic minorities are special targets of the Sunni majority. From 1947 to 2021, 18 women and 71 men were extra-judicially killed over blasphemy accusations. The allegations were made against 107 women and 1,308 men.

The CRSS said the Islamabad High Court had previously suggested to the legislature to amend the existing laws to give equal punishment to those who level false blasphemy accusations. However, successive governments have, under pressure from the Muslim clergy, further tightened it to target minority and ethnic groups.

Most recently, Human Rights Minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada wrote to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif against the recent amendment to the blasphemy law because it was done to "please a specific group" and approved without "fulfilling the norms of parliamentary proceedings". The amendment was approved by the National Assembly on Jan 17 in the presence of just 15 members. There has been no response.

As for women, Pakistan has a controversial record of keeping people in jail for long years, convicting and hanging victims to satisfy public outcry.

Among the more prominent cases is of Asia Bibi, a Christian farmhand who fell foul of other women who accused her of blasphemy. Jailed for nine years, the mother of five was not released even after the Supreme Court acquitted her. Following death threats, she was quietly sent out to France and now she currently lives in Canada.

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