Asylum Petition

Asylum Petition – Sample

1.         Respondent is a born Ahmadi Moslem who practices Ahmadiyyut, the true, Islaam, the way Ahmadies have done from their inception in 1889, the way they have done in Pakistan since its formation in 1947, and the way they know it is right and leads to the salvation. The threshold requirement has been meet by submitting the certificate from “The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam”, page C1 herein.

2.         Respondent continuously practiced Ahmadiyya religious worships while Pakistani legislature continually added increasing number of those worships to the list of crimes by making new laws and imposing exceptionally harsh and cruel sentences on Ahmadies as shown in pages D1 to D7 herein. Respondent practiced Ahmadiyya worships while the Pakistan government arrested, battered and jailed Ahmadies for praising God Almighty their way.  Respondent practiced Ahmadiyyut despite living for years under constant fear and threat by bullying bigots, instigated and infuriated into raging ruffians by speeches of the clergy on high-days and holiday, always chanting Kill an Ahmadi – Go to Heavens. The ban on them to practice their religion and gag-orders on the sect, which also is now a strong social group and strong network of political opinion, are part of their persecution that during the last two decades have forced the mass exodus of Ahmadies from their homeland. That’s why respondent subjectively believes that returning to Pakistan — like liberty already lost — can also lead to loss of limb or even life at any time, in any place, by any of those walking terrors. That’s why any reasonable person objectively looking at respondent’s situation undoubtedly concludes that the persecution of Ahmadies in Pakistan has been and is still being done by the Government and people of Pakistan in a planned, systematic manner.

4. 1974 Amendment to the Pakistan Constitution declared that Ahmadies were not Moslems. Further tightening the noose of making crimes of their worships and punishing them with sever punishments followed that. The legislative apex was Ordinance XX of 1984 that amended Section 298-C Pakistan Penal Code, pages D1 to D7 herein, and imposed on Ahmadies exceptionally long sentences for doing those acts of worship that Moslems do all over the world several times a day. The persecutor Pakistan Government thus spurred the persecution of Ahmadies in high gear, actively encouraged aggravated atrocities against them, and made their life miserable in their own country of birth.
5. Extracts from the “Pakistan Country Report on human rights by the State Department of January 1999, pages E1 to E5 herein, tells the terrible tale of Ahmadies’ persecution and unjustifiable prosecutions in Pakistan.
6. The fair and world protests, pages F1 to F6 herein, against the violations of human rights of the Ahmadies in Pakistan made little dent in their ongoing persecution by the Pakistan legislature, executive, judiciary and the public at large.
7. The persecution of Ahmadies in Pakistan reached new heights when government, politicians and clergy started treating Ahmadies as mere objects and the easiest target to kid-kick-and-kill in everyone’s efforts to vie for and win political, public and private favors. Their awful persecution going in Pakistan for nearly a quarter of a century is illustrated graphically albeit violently in the media news, photos and reports.

• Page G1 herein: The determination of the President of Pakistan stated in an International Conference in London “We will … persevere in our effort to ensure that the cancer of Qadianism is exterminated”.
• Page G2 herein: Horrible memory of WWII come to mind by seeing the rounding up of Ahmadies “gathered in the place of worship for Eidul Azha prayer … shifted amid tight security by the police to the “A” Div Police Station. …All of them were allowed to go home except the four (charged u/s 295-A).
• Page G3 herein: Government of Pakistan amended “relevant law to award death sentence for derogatory remarks against the Holy Prophet (s.a.w).
• Page G4 herein: Full Bench of Federal Shariat Court issued contempt of court notice to the Head of the Ahmadiyya Community, settled in England, for “he was prohibited from calling … but he still called himself a Muslim”.
• Page G5 herein: Federal Shariat Court disallowed lawyer Ghulam Mujtaba from appearing and arguing his case before it because he was an Ahmadi.
• Page G6 herein shows how Pakistani scholar/politicians incite public violence against Ahmadies. They call them as “robbers of the Finality of Prophethood … cancer to the world of Islam”. They resolve to “As long as the blood of Islamic pride is in our veins” and “The City of Rabwah must be liquidated”. They accuse them as “linked up with the Jews” and “working hand in glove behind every activity against Islam and the country”.
• Pages G 7 to 12 herein: Sad reports and photos of many men and women who were hit and hurt by hooligans, and many even killed only for being Ahmadies.
• Pages G13 to15 herein: These photographs show physical torture and murder of only some “From hundreds of victims” – just because they were Ahmadies.
• Pages G16 to 23 herein show savage persecution of the Ahmadies by emotional torture. Unless killed first, criminal cases are registered against them. Their corpses are disgraced and burials obstructed. Their jobs are taken away. Name of their town Rabwah is forcibly changed though they built it on their private property. Hoodlums from all over are gathered to form processions in Rabwah, raise amplified, insulting and inflammatory slogans against past and present Ahmadi dignitaries whom Ahmadies regard and revere as holy persons.
• Pages G24 to 28 are some of newspaper articles show “Ahmadies reach the end of the judicial road” by enumerating cases against Ahmadies, reporting their convictions and severe sentences, and updating human rights violations.
• Page G29 is a cleric’s religious decree. “Islaamic government must kill them… Governments in last 50 years have not been sincere in enforcing Islaamic codes… Muslims who have offered condolence to Qadianies have really helped them … This is a violation of the verses of the Qor-aan. Qadianies cannot be forgiven… To offer funeral prayer or condole for other losses of Ahmadies is against Islaam Moslem brothers out of respect for God and glory of Mustafa (s.a.w) must prefer relations with God and the messenger than business relations (with Ahmadies)”.
• Pages 31 to 35 reflect public and political reaction to implement Clergy’s decrees. For saying “There is no God except Allah”, “Peace be upon you”, “Reading Holy Qor-aan”, “Calling for the prayers”, Ahmadies’ persecution goes on and on.

8. Respondent deserves asylum because of credible, well-founded fears of discrimination, persecution and horrors of persecution in Pakistan, particularly —

• Persecution including non-physical harm and severe economic disadvantage as defined in re Abdel Masieh v. USINS, 73 F.3d 579 (5^th 1996);
• Well-founded fear of persecution, a somewhat stringent standard applied to withhold deportation; Rodriguez-Rivera v. USINS (1988, CA 9) 848 F2d 998;
• Clear probability of persecution and well-founded fear of persecution, both held to be really identical in re Sotto v. USINS (1984, CA3) 748 F2d 832;
• Clear probability of persecution, a more generous and less stringent standard applied to requests for asylum; in re Artega v. INS (1988, CA9) 836 F2d 1227. Case had denied asylum and withholding of deportation relief but was remanded to BIA to apply SC decision in re Carddoza-Fonesca (1985, CA9) 767 F2d 1448);
• BIA’s own adoption of reasonable person standard. Would a reasonable person in alien’s circumstances fear persecution if returned to the native country was held “Appropriate” for being a standard faithful to the language of Refugee Act and consistent with pronouncement of US Supreme Court. In reA.A. 26851062 v. INS (1990, CA4) 899 F2d 304, and Bajwa v. Cobb, DC Mass, 727 F.Supp 53.

WHEREFORE, respondent prays for grant of asylum.

                                                Submitted by

                                                Abid A. Buttar, P.C.