The organisers of a conference on minorities at Pakistan’s leading university, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), were told on the eve of the event to drop an Ahmadi from their panel of speakers.

“On the 6th of December 2022, Amnesty International LUMS Chapter intended to host a talk on tolerance in Pakistan with members of various marginalized minorities. Unfortunately, we were abruptly told to drop the Ahmadi representative we had called to speak last night,” said a tweet from the account @AmnestyLums in a detailed thread.

It said that the speakers were pre-approved but the Office of Student Affairs decided to recheck guest profiles and told them to drop the Ahmadi speaker.

“When we asked why we received vague responses about external interference. Still, it is shocking to see an institution such as LUMS fail to protect discourse, even telling us that it is fine because other minorities are still coming,” it said in another tweet in the thread.

The irony of being forced to dis-invite a member of the minority community from a conference on tolerance wasn’t lost on the organisers.

“To make our dissatisfaction known, we will leave an empty seat representing the dropped speaker,” Amnesty LUMS said in another tweet.

The speaker in question was Dr Mirza Sultan Ahmed. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a pediatrician at a hospital in Rabwah city - the de facto headquarters of the community with at least 70,000 members. Ahmadiyya community websites suggest that the doctor in question is from the lineage of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed, the founder of the Ahmadiyya faith.

Soon after the Twitter thread, a debate erupted on social media.

“Having an event on the experience of minorities while excluding one of the most persecuted minorities out of fear makes no sense,” wrote user @akkhan81 whose profile says he is an academic and political anthropologist. “They should just cancel the event and say we are not allowed to talk about oppression of minorities.”

Taimur Rehman, a Marxist and LUMS professor who moderated the panel, blamed the ‘fundamentalists’ for forcing the removal of the speaker.

“Imagine a talk on racism in America forbidding black participation,” wrote another user.

There were those who supported the decision, including user with the handle CryptoB56714008.

This isn’t the first time the inclusion of a member of the Ahmadiyya community has resulted in public uproar and a swift retraction.

Shortly after becoming prime minister in 2018, Imran Khan had to revoke the appointment of Princeton-trained economist [Atif Mian][6] - considered among the world’s best - from his Economic Advisory Council after pressure from right-wing groups, including the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.

Two years later, Pakistan formed the National Commission on Minorities to oversee their concerns but excluded members of the Ahmaddiya faith after opposition from the country’s religious affairs ministry.