I went to the web page of Pakistan's Embassy in Washington DC to download the passport application. The first item on the page has a quotation from Quaid-e-Azam's famous speech that he delivered soon after Independence:

"You are free; you are free to go to your Temples, You are free to go to your mosque."

"The creation of the new state has placed a tremendous responsibility on the citizens of Pakistan. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate to the world how a nation containing many elements can live in peace and amity and work for the betterment of all its citizens irrespective of caste or creed. Our object should be peace within, and peace without. We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial friendly relations with our immediate neighbors and with the world at large."

The inside of the application, however, revealed quite a different story: The applicant has to declare (in case of a "Muslim") that:

a. I am a Muslim and believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) the last of the prophets.

b. I do not recognize any person who claims to be prophet in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever after Muhammad (peace be upon him) or recognize such a claimant as prophet or a religious reformer as a Muslim.

c. I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Quadiani to be an impostor nabi and also consider his followers whether belonging to the Lahori or Quadiani group,

Our government is not only capable of explicit bigotry, but also demonstrates exemplary ability in not seeing obvious contradictions between ideology and practice. Nevertheless, they were able to salvage some grace for the embassy page by omitting an important line from Jinnah's quote:

You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State.

Several questions naturally come to mind:

1. What relevance does religion have on the country's passport?

2. Why is it necessary to condemn someone's personal beliefs in a place as irrelevant as the passport form?

3. What prevents the new government from revoking such blatant examples of intolerance that have aroused much international criticism in the past?

4. If I consider Ahmadis to be "muslim," do I have to declare myself a non-muslim in the passport?

I will not attempt to detail the victimization of the powerless sectors of Pakistan's population (namely religious/ethnic minorities and women). My only purpose is to ask what WE can do to put an end to this intolerance that arises directly from the laws of the state. Blasphemy law, Hudood Ordinance, "Religious Trademark" act...what next?