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2019 RLLR 13

Citation: 2019 RLLR 13
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: July 9, 2019
Panel: M. Vega
Counsel for the claimant(s): Ian Wong
Country: Pakistan
RPD Number: TB8-13766
ATIP Number: A-2020-01124
ATIP Pages: 000099-0000103


[1]       MEMBER: This is the oral decision in the case with respect to [XXX], file number TB8-13766. I have considered your testimony, Mr. [XXX], and I’m now ready to render a decision in this case. Okay.

[2]       You have made a claim to be a citizen of Pakistan and you are claiming refugee protection pursuant to Sections 96 and 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. I find that you are a convention refugee for the following reasons:

[3]       Your allegations are found in your basis of claim form in summary and I won’t repeat them all. Basically, you were born into a Sunni family and you, yourself, partly because of your career as a [XXX], you became — and also because you were brought up to believe that — by your father that other — that religions were to be treated well, all of them, you become exposed to the Shia faith or the Shia sect of Islam and became friends with someone who was involved in the Shia faith and whose uncle was a guardian of one of the prominent imambargahs in Lahore.

[4]       And through this friendship you started answering questions, you started believing that this was the right path and that it was the right path for you. And you then converted in — first major interest known in 2016 and in 2017 you formally converted at the imambargah where this friend had taken you to.

[5]       And when this became known to your family, and this became known as a result of a beating that you received by extremist persons who had become aware of your being a convert to the Shia sect, and they beat you up.

[6]       And this was one of several encounters that you subsequently had with extremists associated to either the Sipah-e-Sahaba or the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi — and I’ll refer to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi from now on as the LEJ and the Sipah-e-Sahaba as the SSP. Okay?

[7]       So basically, your family members became aware of your conversion. They were very angry with you. All the family was angry, as were your friends who were also Sunnis, including your employer who was not happy about it either.

[8]       It would appear that the only — but despite their anger, you still were able to find some assistance from these family members — from some, with the exception of your eldest brother who is very involved in politics as he’s — give me a second.

[9]       Your brother has continued to be involved and to contest elections as recently as 2018. In your basis of claim form, you had indicated that this brother, Shabazz (Ph), in 2015 he became a member — sorry. No, not that.

[10]     Your brother became the [XXX] of the [XXX]. He was very close to the Chief Minister of the Punjab. And he has continued to be in the [XXX] until, as I’ve already said, even recently in 2018.

[11]     Your brother was very upset about your having become a convert to the Shia Sect. He also has influence and power because of his political position. He became very also concerned that not only was your family at risk, as your brother was targeted and was beaten up when they couldn’t find you, and your mother — there was a threatening letter sent to you at your mother’s house, but he was also very concerned about his own political career and that this would affect the family’s honour and that it would also have repercussions on his career.

[12]     He asked — told your mother to disinherit you and she proceeded to do that in XXXX 2018, to fill out a disinheritance certificate and file it. And he also went as far as to tell the police, with whom he had friendships, to stop helping you.

[13]     Because at first the police were taking your information down. They even took a first information report, but then subsequently the police just took information but they did nothing with it and they stopped even doing anything that might assist you.

[14]     And so, you decided you couldn’t stay there and you came to Canada to live in the end of XXXX 2018. Okay?

[15]     So when you became known to be a Shia convert, that’s when your problems started for you. You were not — the fact that you were a Shia was problematic for you, but it was more so because you had converted from the Sunni faith.

[16]     So the nexus to the convention ground is that of your religion, because as a Shia — as Shias -­ the documentary material provides a lot of information with respect to how they are treated by the Sunni majority population and how their extremist groups, as you’ve encountered, that deal with them — with people that — with minority religions, but they deal very badly with minority religions, but they deal also very badly with any person who’s a convert from the Sunni Sect. In some ways, some would say they deal worse with the converts.

[17]     I’ll get to the documents in just a moment. I want to speak about your credibility. Your credibility, I found you to be — I found you to overall to have — to be a credible witness. Your documents corroborated much of what you say in your basis of claim form.

[18]     I did not find problems or discrepancies between what you said in your basis of claim form, in your documents, with what you said today orally. The only — we seemed to encounter problems towards the end, that you were having some problems or understanding.

[19]     Now I have to say, in cases where a person speaks English or understands enough English, I’ve had this happen. So it’s not an interpretation problem.  It’s a problem where the person understands enough to listen to the question and before the interpreter can even translate it, the person is already coming up with the answer. And then I find that the answer I get is confusing.

[20]     So because I find that it’s happened in many cases where they have that similarity to your case, I don’t find that you’re trying to trick me or to try — that you’re trying to make things up.

[21]     So I do believe that your allegations, your evidence, overwhelmingly indicates that you are a Shia convert. You have letters from the imambargah here in Canada. You have letters from the imambargah back in Pakistan, you have receipts, donation receipts.

[22]     When you spoke about issues to do with your family and to do with your faith, there was this sincerity in the way you said it and I find that I can accept your allegations as credible. Okay?

[23]     So the documentary material, we have a lot of information, both from your counsel’s packages as well as from the National Documentation Package. And what it says about the religious minorities in Pakistan is not very good for the religious minorities.

[24]     It states that the Shia population is about 25 percent of the Pakistani populations and that hey have suffered and often are the targets of violent attacks by Sunni fundamentalist groups throughout the country.

[25]     The LEJ is a banned extremist group that was connected and linked to the earlier group, the Sipah-e-Sahaba, which was also banned. These groups have caused problems in Pakistan, continue to do so, as well as to the Shia Sect of Muslims, as well as to other minority religions.

[26]     There’s a document in the package at item 1.8, from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It is called the UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for assessing the international protection needs of members of religious minorities from Pakistan.

[27]     This document speaks of the type of violence that these fundamentalist groups carry out. And it speaks about the targeting of Shia Muslims as well as of other religious minority groups.

[28]     This document also speaks in the summary about how if a person has come to the attention of these militant groups, these groups have quite the network, and then these people who come to the attention of these terrorists, these people are not safe throughout the country because of the network that these militants have.

[29]     The documentary material also speaks about how Sunnis clerics make the situation worse by preaching over loud speakers hatred, prejudice and violence against Shias as well others.

[30]     There’s another document which is found at item 12.5. It’s a response to information request and it states there that according to human rights watch, the LEJ reportedly has had links to the Pakistani military and intelligence services in Pakistan and that they act, these groups that is – act with impunity in area where state authority is well established, such as in the Punjab Province.

[31]     It also states in other sources, in the same document, that the government efforts to address the violence against Shia Muslims has been insufficient. And this is according to the JINNAH, J-I-N­-N-A-H, Institute.

[32]     And another document at item 1.6, written by the Asylum Research Center, it’s also by the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees — or rather the UNHCR commissioned this document and they called it, “The Pakistan Country Report September 2016”.

[33]     And it speaks in that document with regards to Sunni militants and other militant religious groups and how these groups target religious minorities, especially Shiites, Ahmadis, Sufis and Christians. And how the LEJ was also responsible for much of the violence.

[34]     Information from the Jamestown Foundation in the documentary material indicates that there’s nowhere in Pakistan that you would be safe without facing serious grounds for persecution on the basis of your religion.

[35]     And also, in my opinion, I want to say that given the fact that the choice in your career is that of a journalist, the documentary material also speaks about journalists. Because of the high-profile nature of their work and also because then your name becomes known, journalists are — as well as because they often write about sensitive issues and human rights issues, they are also in a position of risk back in Pakistan.

[36]     In your case, I found that because you have written under your own name — you’ve written under reporter — a reporter, but you’ve also written under your own name as part of your credentials and part of your inventory of writing, I find that for you to try to relocate throughout the country, as you have tried to do, would be difficult for you.

[37]     In your particular case, it’s not just that these organizations know you and could try to find you, but any assistance that was — that you tried to obtain on your own seems to have been sabotaged by your brother who is in a position of power and influence and he’s used that power and influence rather than to help you, he’s — and he even said that the reason the police had paid attention to you was because of him, but then when you asked him to stop helping you that makes it puts you in a worse situation and I believe that you would face a risk of persecution because of your brother’s influence.

[38]     Therefore I find that in your case there is not adequate protection for you provided by the government, in your particular situation, Mr. XXX, and therefore I find that you face a serious possibility of persecution in Pakistan by reason of your religion as a Shia Muslim anywhere in the country where you may go, because you have converted and I also — and as I’ve said there’s no state protection available to you and no internal flight alternative available either. I therefore find you to be a convention refugee and I accept your claim.

[39]     Do you understand, Mr. XXXX?

[40]     CLAIMANT: Thank you.

[41]     MEMBER: You’re very welcome. This hearing is —

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