In the past and even now, accepting the minorities living in Pakistan has been a difficult thing to do for many. Ever since the great partition of the sub-continent in 1947, the stakeholders of the land have been drawing daggers at each other. Over the decades, it’s saddening to see how things have deteriorated instead of moving towards betterment.
Minorities in Pakistan have been denied their rights since the very beginning. Hate and religious discrimination have brought down societal values and disregard the basis on which our country stands as a whole. There have been many incidents in the past where we witnessed minorities being ill-treated in many events.
Speaking of which, Mervyn Middlecoat was a Pakistani fighter pilot in the Pakistan Air Force. He was involved in a number of aerial battles during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani wars. He was one of the distinguished Pakistani strike and fighter pilots of the period and was shot down on 12 December 1971.
His daughter, Leslie Mervyn Middlecoat shares some heart-touching details of her childhood and how she was asked to leave Pakistan because of their Christian beliefs. During an interview, when she was asked if she had ever been mocked for her religion, she said,
“Christianity is my belief system and that will continue but by my identity is that I am a Pakistani and no one can ever take that away from me.”
But when she was asked to leave the country by another student when she was young, here’s what she had to say…
What’s even beautiful is the way her father explained to her the Pakistani flag. Beautiful, isn’t it?
We should understand that religious harmony is one of the things we, as Pakistanis need to understand and it’s about time we accept them wholeheartedly. Because, at the end of the day, we’re all living in this country and trying our best to make this country a better place to live in.
