CHALLENGES FOR NON MUSLIM MINORITIES IN

PAKISTAN

PREPARED FOR :
SIR ALI AMMAR

PREPARED BY :
M.ZEESHAN HAIDER

BABAR ZIA

UMER SULTAN

M. ZEESHAN

M. BILAL

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

QUAID-E-AZAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY , SAHIWAL

09 MAY 2017
 Acknowledgement

We are deeply indebted to Mr. Ali Ammar who was abundantly

helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and guidance
and enabled us to develop a report.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................ 4
Purpose.............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Scope ................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Limitations ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4
CHALLENGES FOR MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN ...................................................................................................... 5
Legal issues :............................................................................................................................................................. 6
Misuse of blasphemy law .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Social contempt ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Abduction of their scared places and their contempt............................................................................................ 7
Difficulties in registering their marriages ............................................................................................................ 7
Literature review ............................................................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusions & recommendations ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Summary ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Recommendations ......................................................................................................................................................... 9
References ......................................................................................................................................................................... 9
 INTRODUCTION
On July 13, 1947,Quaid-e-azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had given a solemn
promise to minorities while addressing a press conference at his house:
The minorities to whichever community they may belong, will be safeguarded. Their religion, or their
faith or their belief will be protected in every way possible. Their life and property will be secure. There will be no
interference of any kind with their freedom of worship. They will have their protection with regard to their religion,
their faith, their life, their property, their culture. They will be in all respects citizens of Pakistan without any
distinction of caste or colour, religion or creed.1

Recent massacres of religious minorities in Pakistan have focused new

attention on the predicament of minorities in a country which is generally
perceived to be a homogeneous Muslim nation. This report describes Pakistans
ethnic and religious minorities, and highlights its rich cultural diversity. There
are six non Muslim communities in Pakistan: Hindu, Sikh, Christians, Parsis,
Bah's and Kalash as well as several smaller groups. Almost half of Pakistans
history as a modern nation has seen military rule. In analyzing the status of
Pakistans religious minorities, this report details the challenges they face as
citizens of Pakistan.

Purpose
The purpose of this report is to assess the challenges faced by the religious minority groups in Pakistan.

Scope
Our study is limited to Pakistani Muslim society only.

Limitations
In this report we targeted only minorities on the basis of religion minorities on the basis of culture and region.

1
July 13, 1947,Quaid-e-azam Muhammad Ali while addressing a press conference at his house
 CHALLENGES FOR MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN
Amnesty international report of 2016-17 states that:
"State and non-state actors continued to discriminate against religious minorities, both Muslim and non-
Muslim, in law and practice. Blasphemy laws remained in force and several new cases were registered, mostly in
Punjab. The laws violated the rights to freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion. Minorities,
particularly Ahmadis , Hazaras and Dalits, continued to face restricted access to employment, health care,
education and other basic services."2

In Pakistan non-Muslim minority groups face many challenges from safety of

their lives to practicing their religion. In this report we have discussed those
challenges concisely.

Forcibly religious conversion:

According to Islamic ideology every human being is free to adopt any
religion which makes him satisfy logically. every year many non-Muslims
convert to Islam freely by research. But unfortunately in Pakistan forcibly
conversion is a very big challenge for the non-Muslims. Specially Hindu
community is the major victim of it. Majority of the Hindus live in Sindh
Hindu girls abducted and pressurized to accept the Islam and forcibly
married to Muslim boys .
DAWN news reported that:

" Human rights estimate that around 1000 women and young girls largely from Hindu and
Christian families, in Sindh and Punjab respectively are forcibly converted after being kidnapped
and then married to Muslims often the abductors themselves."3

According to BBC Hindu leader Pita Shivani told that :

"In Sindh every month 20 to 25 girls are forced to leave their religion and a situation is
being created which is forcing Hindu community to migrate from the Sindh."4

2
Amnesty International 2016-17 Human rights report
3
DAWN , Editorial , Forced Conversions DEC 17 , 2017
4
BBC , Hindu Girl Conversion 02 march 2012
 Legal issues :
Non-Muslim communities are facing majority of legal issues in which
the laws are being misused against them in which blasphemy law is being
misused extensively.

Misuse of blasphemy law

Misuse of Blasphemy law is a very serious challenge for the
non-Muslim community resting in Pakistan. On the basis of personal
conflicts fake cases of blasphemy created. then a FIR launched against
them and they face a non fair trial. Every year hundreds of FIRs are
launched against hundreds of people. it includes people from all religions.
the details of FIRs under Blasphemy Law in 2010 are given below

Religion Number of cases

Christian 15
Muslim 10
Hindu 07
Ahmedi 06
Unknown 02
Total 40
Table 1.15

Daily basis legal issues

Domicile is the basic necessity and is the right of every Pakistani regardless
of religion or creed. FATA's resident non-Muslims face many troubles regarding
their domicile. Annual report on Religious freedom states that :
" Domicile is not issued to non-Muslims so that they cannot receive their right on the basis of
quota" 6

Hindu marriages do not registered officially. HRCP describes seriousness

of this issue :
" Hindu women are required to submit the ID card to get the marriage card. Sometime it takes
more than 20 years for this process."7

5
A Report of Religious minorities in Pakistan
6
A Report of Religious minorities in Pakistan
7
Perils of Faith , A report of HRCP working group in communities by HRCP Lahore Pakistam
 Social contempt
In Pakistan non-Muslims face different kinds of social disgraces which led
them to very social problems. they are called by bad names like "Chorha".
normally people don't consider it a bad habit . A Hindu Pandit Jag Mohan
Arora told this irony in the interview that :
"We face many challenges socially many social challenges, people don't make them live on their residence
on rent, mostly if we go to an office then they would take hours to do our work, in normal aspect of relations many
people meet very courteously but many show a sign of disliking and resist. In schools are children are called cow
worshipers , in occasions no one cares about our edibles, on different religious occasions also us non-Muslims are
not focused to care about." 8

more contempts are as under :

In Chenab Nagar a man fired from the Principalship only because he was a Qadeyani.9
Pastor Mubarak Maseeh and his nephew Shahid Maseeh was beaten because they refused to
recite holy Quran.10
Non-Muslims naming their child muslim names to avoid the bigotry against them.11
Their Patriotism is doubted. 12

Abduction of their scared places and their contempt

Religious places and identity are respectful for every religion and their
followers. The disrespect of the sacred places or their abduction hurts that
community very severely and is a big challenge. In Pakistan unfortunately these
kind of incidents have been happening under the umbrella of law enforcing
agencies some of them are as under:
In Nowshehra Virkan, Faisalabad, Mandi Bahauddin and Lahore the Christian graveyards has
been abducted unlawfully and they stopped Christians to bury their bodies in those Graveyards.13
In 1992 in Babari Mosque was demolished by the Sikhs and Hindu's. In the reaction hundreds of
Mandirs were demolished in Pakistan.14

Difficulties in registering their marriages

In Pakistan there is no official mechanism of registering marriages and
divorces of Hindu community due to which Hindu community is facing many
difficulties e.g. forcibly marriages. Parents cannot prove their girls married due
to no official document in the court. Courts demand proves prior to divorce
hearing if there is no proof of marriage no hearing is conducted. After the death
8
Interview at Sadar Rawalpindi Dated 03 march 2017
9
A report of religious minorities in Pakistan
10
A report of religious minorities in Pakistan
11
Dominic Moghal , religious minorities in Pakistan
12
Interview at Sadar Rawalpindi Dated 03 march 2017
13
Dominic Moghal , religious minorities in Pakistan
14
Dominic Moghal , religious minorities in Pakistan
of husband women cannot get his share in the property because of unavailability
of their marital prove. So this is also another big challenge for the Hindu
community. Reports claim that :
There is no Hindu marriage act.15
BBC reported that if a women wants to get divorce from her husband than the Judges ask if
there is no official document of marriage how a divorce can be done?16
HRCP states that due to absence of Hindu Law of marriage and divorce forcible marriages are
increasing which results forced religious conversion.17
Zia ul Haq amended the Christian Divorce Act in 1869 after the amendment a Christian
women can only be divorced in the case of adultery. Due to this shameful amendment Christian
women face very disgrace and shame in getting divorce. 18

15
Shahid Jatoi , Sulah-e-Kul , page #6
16
BBC , , Dated 17 February 2017
17
A Look Back at our promises, HRCP Lahore Pakistan 2015
18
Monthly "HUAMSUKHAM" Editorial 6 February 2017
 Literature review

Conclusions & recommendations

Summary

Conclusions

Recommendations

References