VERY soon after he took over, General Musharraf spoke out in a refreshingly direct manner against religious extremism. This unambiguous statement was reinforced by his publicly stated admiration for modern secular Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

While many rational Pakistanis here and abroad took some comfort from the general's straightforward words and waited for action, the religious right immediately attacked these sentiments. Since then, the general and his spokesmen have maintained a discreet silence on the matter. When I mentioned this to a senior member of this government, he repeated the now-familiar plea for more time. But why does the general need more time to enunciate his policy on the status of the minorities, for example? Surely if he can make detailed pronouncements on the state of the economy, he can tell us how he will safeguard the rights of our minorities.

If he would like to hear the voice of a member of this threatened community, let me reproduce below excerpts of an e-mail I received last month from a Pakistani-American reader who now lives safely in the United States. His name is J. Philip, and he was a student at St Patrick's School, General Musharraf's alma mater:

I understand the Chief Executive is from St Pat's... In any case he wouldn't be a fanatic like Zia and that's the good part. I wonder though whether he would do away with divisive laws like the separate electorate laws, something very dear to the hearts of minorities. Also, other laws like the one on blasphemy is again a life and death issue for minorities... I sometimes feel the country has abandoned me with all these laws and I am scared to think about coming back for a visit. This is true for most other minorities I have talked to here. I sometimes wonder how the minorities in Kashmir - since about 25% of Kashmiris are Hindus or Buddhists - would feel about being in a state controlled by Pakistan.

I guess these questions would not be in the minds of anybody given the problems the country faces... For the past 50 years the Kashmir issue has been the issue of supreme importance for which half the country was lost and the rest [remains] mired in poverty. Isn't it time for a change?"

I think all of us who belong to the majority Muslim population of this country should be ashamed that members of the minority should feel so unsafe in Pakistan that they fear returning to their homes. Even Pakistanis going to India for a visit don't feel so insecure. This is a truly damning comment on what we have been reduced to as a nation. While we blame Zia for virtually disenfranchising the minorities through his separate electorate ordinance, the fact is that since his death eleven years ago, no civilian government has moved to undo this divisive law. To his credit, Farooq Leghari has included the repeal of separate electorates in his Millat Party's manifesto, but apart from him, no mainstream politician - even a self-proclaimed liberal like Benazir Bhutto - has raised his or her voice against it.

What J. Philip has said about Kashmiri non-Muslims is also very relevant. While beating our pathetic little drum to raise support for our stance on Kashmir, we fail to consider the fact that given our terrible track record of dealing with our own minorities, the world is hardly likely to entrust the fate of millions of non-Muslims to us. If we can't safeguard the rights of our Christian, Hindu and Ahmadi citizens, we are clearly incapable of guaranteeing the lives and property of Kashmiri non-Muslims. As it is, Kashmiri mujahideen groups are targeting innocent Hindus, apart from attacking Muslims who do not support them.

Fortunately, bigotry and intolerance are limited to a small number of highly vocal and well-armed fanatics whose influence far exceeds their numbers. After years of financial and administrative support from Zia throughout the Eighties, they have become accustomed to setting the national agenda. Unfortunately, a succession of supine civilian governments just could not summon the gumption to face them down, even though both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had a common interest in confronting and routing these enemies of democracy.

The question now before us is whether the present military government has the will to address this problem. I place this issue very high on any rational set of priorities. Currently, Pakistan is being viewed as a breeding ground of religious intolerance and an exporter of fanatical terrorists. Our image abroad is so awful that few foreigners are willing to risk coming here. When we talk about increasing tourism and foreign investment, we are totally out of touch with reality. As long as the perception in the international community is that Pakistan is a haven for terrorist gangs, only the foolhardy will invest here, or visit these shores for a holiday.

Scores of non-Muslims are currently languishing in jails across the country on trumped-up charges under the Blasphemy Act. Under this Act, it is easy for a couple of people to swear they heard or saw a non-Muslim blaspheme against the holy Prophet (PBUH). Since the automatic punishment for such a crime is death, this has become an easy way to settle old scores or acquire somebody's property. Also, many Ahmadis have been sentenced for the simple "crime" of saying or writing "Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim." And yet we take great pleasure if a foreigner manages to recite.

Under such circumstances, it comes as no surprise that J. Philip and his co-religionists should feel threatened in Pakistan. Growing up in Karachi, I, too studied at St Patrick's around the same time General Musharraf did. Apart from Christians, Parsis and Hindus, we even had a couple of Jews studying with us. Nobody bothered about each other's faith. We played and fought as boys do, and survived under the ministrations of tough disciplinarians like Father Tony Lobo. When I returned to the school a few years ago out of pure nostalgia, I was shocked to see that there were hardly any non-Muslim names in the class lists on the notice board.

So despite Mr Jinnah's assurances to the minorities that they would be treated as equal citizens in Pakistan, the sad fact is that we have not kept faith with the founder of the nation. But can General Musharraf undo the harm his uniformed predecessor, General Zia, did not just to the minorities, but to the whole country? Only time will tell, but meanwhile, let me wish my Christian readers a very happy Christmas.