Non-Muslims not allowed to rent, purchase property in Karachi's posh areas: Pak activist

In yet another case of religious intolerance in Pakistan, notices have cropped up in various affluent localities of the financial capital Karachi which asked people not to rent or sell their property to non-Muslims.

'Bigotry spotted. If you are a non-Muslim, you cannot purchase or get a flat on rent in one of the posh areas of #Karachi. This is Machiyara Residency at Khaliq-uz-Zaman Rd, Block 8 Clifton, Karachi," tweeted activist Kapil Dev.

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Notices in Urdu regarding the same have been put up in the residency as well as several other localites inside Karachi.

"Sir I was looking for a flat in Karachi 2018. There are more than 20+ buildings where these type of notices and rules are there that you can't sell your flat to a non-muslim. Almost every building in Bahadurabad has this rule too. Especially zam zam residency owners," a Twitter user replied to Dev's post.

The condition of minorities is deplorable in Pakistan. They have always been mistreated and suffered injustices from fellow civilians and the administration. Pakistan administration has always patronised religious, ethnic, cultural and racial disagreements to further their regime.

Pakistan has been condemned internationally for cracking down on its minorities.

Islamabad has also reportedly been discriminating against its religious minorities, manifested in various forms of targeted violence, mass murders, extrajudicial killings, abduction, rapes, forced conversion to Islam among others, making Pakistani Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas and Shias one of the most persecuted minorities in the region.

Recently, Pakistan's record of using unfair means of treatment against the minority communities was exposed after a former legislator of Prime Minister Imran Khan's party sought political asylum in India.

Baldev Kumar, a former MLA of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI party) from Barikot in Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) assembly and his family had come to India earlier this month to seek political asylum.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada had raised the issue of suppression of religious freedom last month by China and Pakistan and slammed the two Asian nations for "persecuting and repressing" their religious minorities.

During the meet on Safety of Religious Minorities here on Thursday, the US, UK and Canada expressed concerns over the increasing, widespread and undue restrictions on religious freedom in the two countries.

In Pakistan, many incidents are regularly reported where Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls are forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men.