A Pakistani Christian sewerage cleaner has died after three doctors allegedly refused to treat him till his sludge-covered body had been washed; they said their Ramadan fast would be invalid (“makruh”) because he was “unclean” and also belonged to a low caste. (The word for low caste, “chuhra”, especially derogatory, is reserved for sanitary workers and often used in Pakistan synonymously for “Christian.”)
Irfan Masih died on 1st June, in Umar Kot Civil Hospital, Sindh, 300 kilometres from Karachi. Umar Kot has about 75 Christian families; almost all of them work as sanitary workers, a job that many Muslims refuse to do.
A number of Umar Kot Christians blocked a crossing after Irfan Masih’s death, demanding that a criminal case be registered against three doctors. Senior Superintendent of Police Usman Javed Bajwa told World Watch Monitor that a case of murder by negligence had eventually been registered, and the police would submit its report on the merit in the court.
A Pakistani Christian NGO has said that a doctor’s Hippocratic oath obliges him to treat a patient whose life is at risk in any circumstances, beyond religion and class. The Cecil and Iris Chaudhry Foundation wrote “We condemn this incident in the strongest manner. A society becomes exceedingly dangerous when it disregards all norms of humanity.”
Other experts on Pakistan told WWM that this treatment of minorities has more to do with the legacy of the Indian caste system than Islamic theology about how the Ramadan fast could be invalidated by certain ‘restrictions’ on the faster. For example, there are exemptions from fasting for Muslim travellers or people who are ill.
Meanwhile, Nasir Saeed, director of the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), which provides legal assistance to Pakistani Christians, told Fides it was a sad episode. “A life could have been saved if medical aid had been given in time. This is not the first time that any sewer cleaner has died doing his duty. The government should provide safety kits to their workers but since these menial jobs are reserved for the Christians nobody cares about them”.
