After seven years of no change many campaigners give up and lose hope, but not our Wilson Chowdhry!
In 2011, Mr Chowdhry was manhandled by security officers at the Pakistan Embassy in London, after several attempts to apply for a visa for him to travel
to visit his family were thwarted.
Mr Chowdhry was hit in the face dozens of time by one ex-military officer while the other security operative held his arms behind his back. Fortunately,
the security officer punching Mr Chowdhry broke a finger which terminated the hitting prematurely, but not before at least 40 punches had connected
with Mr Chowdhry’s face. In what Mr Chowdhry deems a miracle he did not even suffer a scratch despite the physicality of the attack. Mr Chowdhry
said:
“I knew my face was being hit, but felt no pain throughout the attack. I felt my neck was moving backwards and forwards but in all reality it felt like I was protected by an invisible shield.
“I could tell the security officer hitting me was surprised I was still standing.
“After all I was only 9 stone at the time so this was some feat. God was definitely with me.”
Both men tried to force Wilson into a private room but by a further miracle whilst jumping around to get free, Mr Chowdhry caught his leg in a long
bin preventing the forced transfer to the room. Wilson’s wife whilst screaming phoned the police who arrived in seconds. Her screaming also brought
a large number of onlookers to the incident area stopping the violence immediately.
Mob rule took affect and Mr Chowdhry was accused of hitting Embassy staff but when Police were prompted by Mr Chowdhry to ask for CCTV footage, former
High Commissioner Wajid -Ul Hassan agreed to drop charges. Mr Chowdhry had to drop counter-charges after the police made it very clear that
diplomatic immunity would make release of the video footage nigh on impossible.
Wilson’s wife who held a Pakistani passport jorneyed to Pakistan in the absence of her husband as she had to visit her sick mother and took Mr Chowdhry’s
three children with her. In a sick attempt at intimidation, officers from Pakistan’s secret services agents the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),
visited her home three times. On the third visit they even took a local Imam with them, who for no apparent reason took an inventory of the contents
of Juliet Chowdhry’s parental home. Meanwhile in London Mr Chowdhry seriously thought about giving up on the BPCA and while sat praying on the
floor, he received a call from BBC Asia Network who had heard about the attack and wanted to report about it on their news programme.
The reporter visited the Embassy and asked about the attack and the visits to Mrs Chowdhry home. The Embassy shared ‘no comment’ but the intimidation
stopped. The story was also covered in less detail within the Catholic Herald (click here)
Wilson was formally banned from Pakistan the day after the violence and has missed his mother-in-laws funeral, a dearly loved first-cousin’s wedding,
and another precious first- cousin’s funeral. Heaps of birthdays and other occasions too. At the time Wilson, his wife and daughter traveled to Pakistan
at least two times a year.
Wilson Chowdhry, had no interaction with the Pakistan High Commission after that until the new regime came in.
Ziradari’s goons had left and in came Mr Shariff’s team. Wilson held a successful protest for Asia Bibi in 2014 at which Pakistan Embassy staff
bought all the copies of a BPCA commissioned report that had been written about persecution in Pakistan, authored by genocide expert Desmond Fernandes.
After this an invite was sent to Mr Chowdhry to meet with a new First Minister to discuss the torrid situation faced by Christians in Pakistan.
Mr Chowdhry was still banned from the High Commission which is officially recognized as Pakistani territory and so the meeting was held in a
coffee shop nearby the Embassy. After the initial meeting several follow-up meetings took place and a relationship began to build.
Mr Chowdhry was asked to share ways that the Government of Pakistan could help suffering Christians in Pakistan and many suggestions were provided.
One request that the BPCA made was for the installation of washroom facilities at several houses in Jaranwala. This was to prevent vulnerable
girls being kidnapped and raped in a similar fashion to Sherish and Farzana who were abducted at gunpoint whilst using a field as a toilet (click here).
Mehwish Bhatti, BPCA’s lead officer in Pakistan had already engaged with families there and had agreed that local clusters would share facilities at
appropriate properties that were central to each group geographically.
Mehwish Bhatti, said:
“The washrooms we had proposed would contain hand pumps, that permitted cleaner drinking water, bathing and toilet facilities.
“This would improve local hygiene and health and provide safety to vulnerable groups such as women and children who had to travel long distances to bathe in canals and streams and were vulnerable at night whilst using fields as toilets.
“At the time many people were drinking water from irrigation fields and streams without any filtering and life expectancy was extremely low.”
However, bureaucratic delays meant that BPCA sought funding from another source and completed the project themselves. The delays had apparently come
about due to the fact that the First Minister was recalled to Pakistan and a new officer was to be placed into post.
Earlier this year the new First Minister approached Mr Chowdhry and called him to the Pakistan Embassy. This was the first time in 6 years that
Mr Chowdhry had set foot in the Government’s offices. Despite a great fear that this was a ruse to
entrap him Mr Chowdhry chose to attend and asked many members of the BPCA to pray for him. As he entered the building he felt a great fear and
panic but fortunately for him, it was lunch-time and Mr Chowdhry was offered lunch at a nearby restaurant. Although Mr Chowdhry declined the
meal he was urged to go and accepted for decorum’s sake.
Whilst there they discussed a number of issues and the First Minister also informed Mr Chowdhry that 10 washroom facilities had been approved for build,
to help the Christian minority in the village of Jaranwala. Apparently, despite being late for the initial programme funded by the BPCA the Government
of Pakistan had ratified the programme on the basis of the BPCA proposal – they felt our proposal set out strong arguments for actual community benefit
from the project. Moreover they also agreed to use some of the funds to repair a church that had offered to be the location of a grander public
washroom facility.
Last week we received a call that the work had been completed and we sent an officer to review the work. Kanwal Amar our Faisalabad based officer visited
the developed properties and was positively shocked at the scale of the project. Not only had the washroom facilities been built to a high specification
but the government had plumbed facilities into drainage and had in some cases installed electrical pumps instead of hand held facilities. The Washroom
facilities in most cases were the strongest and most secure part of property owners. The new facilities were built in brick whereas most homes
in the region are simple mud homes. A hand held pump installation would cost about 3 years wages of a whole family, however an electrical pump
for these rural communities would be considered financially unattainable.
Kanwal Amar, said:
“I am amazed at the scale of this project it will improve the lives of so many Christians.
“The Christians in the community are looking healthier and cleaner and have gained a huge amount of morale.
To make sure theses facilities are utilized to their fullest potential I am preparing a hygiene and health course and will deliver it to these villagers.
“Many have never used a toothbrush and because of previous water paucity need to be taught the value of washing hands regularly.”
Wilson Chowdhry, said:
“We are excited by the new relationship offered by the Pakistani Government to the BPCA. We hope together to be able to transform the lives of millions of Christians in Pakistan.
“Obviously, we are at a very early stage of what we hope will be a productive team effort and this relatively small project is not evidence of any wholesale reform in Pakistan, but progress is evident and should be commended.
“We have advised the Pakistani High Commission of other areas of concern that if improved could make life for minorities more fulfilling.
“Areas addressed include political matters, policy matters and of course recommended legislative change. Together we have agreed that the BPCA will submit several ground-breaking proposals for projects we believe will help transform Pakistan to a more egalitarian nation.”
Mr Chowdhry and the High Commission are working towards the lifting of his ban. The current regime are of the opinion it should not have happened.
BPCA are hoping to print some image based literature on health and hygiene and are also going to initiate workshops on healthier lifestyles. We need to raise £3000 to make this a reality. Please help us by donating towards this project by clicking (here).
