Sikhism in Pakistan

Colonial era Prior to independence in 1947, and played an important role in its economy as farmers, businessmen, and traders. Significant populations of Sikhs inhabited the largest cities in the Punjab such as Lahore, Rawalpindi and Lyallpur. Lahore, the capital of Punjab, is the location of many important Sikh religious and historical sites, including the Samadhi of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.The nearby town of Nankana Sahib has nine gurdwaras, and is the birthplace of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak. Partition of India (1947) Gurdwara in Hasan Abdal Sikh organizations, including the Chief Khalsa Dewan and Shiromani Akali Dal led by Master Tara Singh, reacted negatively to the Lahore Resolution and the Pakistan movement, viewing it as welcoming possible persecution; the Sikhs largely thus strongly opposed the partition of India. The majority of the Sikhs and Hindus of West Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan migrated to India after the independence of Pakistan in 1947, with a small community of the Sikhs remaining. These Sikh and Hindu refugee communities have had a major influence in the culture and economics of Delhi. Today, segments of the populations of East Punjab and Haryana states and Delhi in India can trace their ancestry back to towns and villages now in Pakistan, including former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. According to Khushwant Singh, approximately 2.5 million Sikhs vacated Pakistan after the country's formation in 1947. According to the Military Evacuation Organization (E.M.O.) on 15 November 1947, around 3,680 non-Muslims (including Sikhs) remained in West Punjab immediately after partition that occurred three months prior on 15 August 1947. Modern era Sikhs have mainly kept a low profile within the monolithic Muslim population of Pakistan. Though Pakistan maintains the title of Islamic state, the articles twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two in chapter two of its constitution guarantees religious freedom to the non-Muslim residents. From 1984 to 2002, Pakistan held a system of separate electorates for all its national legislative assemblies, with a handful of parliamentary seats reserved for minority members. Minorities were legally only permitted to vote for designated minority candidates in general elections. The regime of former President General Pervez Musharraf had professed an agenda of equality for minorities and promotion and protection of minority rights, however, the implementation of corrective measures has been slow. Considerable amount of Sikhs are found in neighbourhood called Narayanpura of Karachi's Ranchore Lines. The historical and holy sites of Sikhs are maintained by a Pakistani governmental body, the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, which is responsible for their upkeep and preservation. The emergence of the Sikh community within Pakistan After the independence of Pakistan and the migration of nearly all Sikhs to India the Sikh community's rights were significantly diminished as their population decreased. Today, the largest urban Sikh population in Pakistan is found in Peshawar, in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where the Pashtun law of "nanawati" (protection) spared the scale of violence which had raged across the Indus River in Punjab. Despite the longstanding tensions between the Sikh and Muslim communities in South Asia, the Pashtuns were tolerant towards the religious minority of Sikhs. There are small pockets of Sikhs in Lahore and Nankana Sahib in Punjab. There has been an influx of Sikh refugees from Afghanistan to Pakistan due to the turbulent civil war and conflicts that have ravaged neighboring Afghanistan, and many of these Sikhs have settled in Peshawar. Afghanistan, like Pakistan, has had small Sikh and Hindu populations. There has been a massive exodus of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan during the past 30 years of turmoil up to the reign of the Taliban and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Due to Pakistan's porous borders with Afghanistan, large numbers of Afghanistan's minority communities, based mainly around the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad have fled, and some Sikhs have joined their kinsmen in Peshawar and Lahore. The Pakistani Constitution states that Sikhism is a monotheistic religion. Recently the Sikh community within Pakistan has been making every effort possible to progress in Pakistan. For example, Hercharn Singh became the first Sikh to join the Pakistan Army. For the first time in the 58-year history of Pakistan there has a Sikh been selected into Pakistan's army. Prior to Harcharan Singh's selection in the Pakistani army no individual person who was a member of the Hindu or the Sikh community were ever enrolled in the army, however; the Pakistani Christian community has prominently served in the Pakistan Armed Forces and some had even reached the ranks of Major Generals in the army, Air Vice Marshals in the Pakistan Air Force and rear Admiral in the Pakistan Navy. It has received various awards for gallantry and valor. Moreover, members of the tiny Parsi community have some representation in the Armed Forces. Other prominent Sikhs are Inspector Amarjeet Singh of Pakistan Rangers and Lance-naik Behram Singh of Pakistan Coast Guard. In 2007, the Pakistan Government enacted the Sikh marriage act that allows Sikh marriages in Pakistan be registered. In 2017, the Punjab legislative assembly passed the Anand Karaj act thereby allowing the Sikh marriage in Punjab province be registered. In the Sindh province, the Sikh marriages are registered under the Sindh Hindu Marriage Act of 2016. == Demographics ==