E/CN.4/1996/95/Add.1 page 14 that preventive measures had been instituted to ensure the protection of minorities (see under Official measures adopted in paras. 73-77) and that the police fulfilled its task of protecting the public and identifying offenders. With regard to assassination threats against Asma Jehangir, Tariq C. Qaisar, Father Julius and J. Salik (see annex), the Ministry of the Interior reported the arrest of 200 persons and religious extremists. III. IDENTIFICATION OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE ELIMINATION OR MAINTENANCE OF ALL FORMS OF INTOLERANCE AND OF DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RELIGION OR BELIEF A. 1. Factors conducive to the maintenance of all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief Legislation 68. It appears from all interviews with non-governmental groups that Pakistani legislation, especially that inherited from the period of office of President Zia-ul-Haq, constitutes a factor of intolerance and discrimination, to which society in general and religious minorities in particular are exposed. Particular features mentioned include the system of separate elections, the exclusion of Ahmadis from the Muslim religion and all legislation opposed to activities deemed to be hostile to Islam, especially the blasphemy law. The Pakistani legal system concerned either directly or indirectly with religious affairs reportedly jeopardizes the notion of citizenship, the content and scope of which are said to be subjected to real or presumed religious considerations. It has often been found, moreover, that State interference in terms of defining the content and mode of expression of a religion (as in the case of the Ahmadis) constituted a source of discrimination and intolerance, which had the effect in practice of subjecting freedom of belief and conviction to a system of supervision and control. As a result, there is a danger that society may be divided into differentiated and even hierarchical categories of citizens, according to religious criteria, the effects of which in practice might depend on power relationships and circumstantial considerations. For this reason, some non-governmental representatives do not hesitate to refer unambiguously and insistently to the notion of apartheid. The very clear feeling to emerge as a result is that the condition of religious minorities is experienced by many as a second class citizenship, where rights lag far behind obligations. 69. Furthermore, still according to non-governmental sources, Islamic law is in fact applied to non-Muslims through some special institutions, such as the Islamic Ideology Council, which is the constitutional agency charged with bringing existing laws into conformity with Islamic injunctions and for advising the Government/legislative regarding any legislative proposal, and the Federal Shariat Court, which has the authority to annul any law on the ground of repugnancy to Islam and whose verdict takes effect if the legislative fails to amend the impugned law within the time-limit prescribed by the court. Yet reportedly non-Muslim lawyers are not authorized to appear before the Federal Shariat Court (see under Constitutional provisions).