Pakistan: Fails To Protect The Rights Of Religious Minorities

International Religious Freedom ReportHome Page

The Constitution (which was suspended following the October 1999 coup) provides for freedom of religion,and states that adequate provisions are to be made for minorities to profess and practice their religionsfreely; however, the Government imposes limits on freedom of religion. Pakistan is an Islamic republic; Islamis the state religion. Islam also is a core element of the country's national ideology; the country wascreated to be a homeland for Muslims. Religious freedom is "subject to law, public order, andmorality;" accordingly, actions or speech deemed derogatory to Islam or to its Prophet are not protected.In addition, the suspended Constitution requires that laws be consistent with Islam and imposes some elementsof Koranic law on both Muslims and religious minorities.

There were no significant changes in the Government’s treatment of religious minorities during the periodcovered by this report. The Government fails in many respects to protect the rights of religious minorities.This is due both to public policy and to the Government’s unwillingness to take action against societalforces hostile to those that practice a different faith. In January 2002, the Government announced plans toabolish the separate electorate system, under which non-Muslim voted in national elections for non-Muslimcandidates. Minority leaders and human rights groups had requested the elimination of the separate electoratesystem for years, on the grounds that it disadvantaged religious minorities. President Pervez Musharrafannounced the reinstatement of joint electorates, ending a 15-year practice of preventing religious minoritiesfrom voting for local representatives in the provincial and national assemblies. However, on June 26, 2002,the Government proposed constitutional amendments that seek to restore the discretionary powers of thePresident and the Governors. With this new amendment, the President may dissolve the National Assembly, andthe proposal also seeks to eliminate 10 reserved National Assembly special seats for Christians, Hindus,Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, other non-Muslims, and Ahmadis.

Acts of sectarian and religious violence continued during the period covered by this report. A number ofmassacres in churches and mosques brought into question the Government’s ability to prevent sectarian andreligious violence. The worst religious violence was directed against the country’s Shi’a minority, whocontinued to be disproportionate victims of individual and mass killings.

Specific government policies that discriminate against religious minorities include the use of the "Hudood"Ordinances, which apply different standards of evidence to Muslims and non-Muslims and to men and women foralleged violations of Islamic law; specific legal prohibitions against Ahmadis practicing their religion; andblasphemy laws that most often are used against Muslims and Ahmadis. The number of cases filed under the"blasphemy laws" continued to be significant during the period covered by this report. A Christiannongovernmental organization (NGO) reported that 58 cases were registered during 2000 and 2001, compared to 53cases during 1999-2000.

Relations between different religious groups frequently are tense, and there were a number of deathsattributed to sectarian violence during the period covered by this report.

Discriminatory religious legislation adds to an atmosphere of religious intolerance, which contributes toacts of violence directed against minority Muslim groups, as well as against Christians, Hindus, and membersof Muslim offshoot groups, such as Ahmadis and Zikris. The Government does not encourage sectarian violence;however, there were instances in which the Government failed to intervene in cases of societal violencedirected at minority religious groups, particularly Shi’as. The lack of an adequate government responsecontributed to an atmosphere of impunity for acts of violence and intimidation against religious minorities.Parties and groups with religious affiliations target minority groups.

The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues with the Government in the context of its overalldialog and policy of promoting human rights.

Section I. Religious Demography

The country has a total area of 310,527 square miles, and its population is approximately 132 million.According to the 1998 census, an estimated 96 percent of the population are Muslim; 1.69 percent areChristian; 2.02 percent are Hindu; and 0.35 percent are "other" (including Ahmadis). The majority ofMuslims in the country are Sunni. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of the Muslim population are Shi’a. It isestimated that there are between 550,000 and 600,000 Ismailis (a recognized Shi’a Muslim group). MostIsmailis in the country are followers of the Aga Khan; however, an estimated 50,000 Ismailis, known as Borahs,are not.

Religious minority groups believe that they are underrepresented in government census counts. Official andprivate estimates of their numbers can differ significantly. The most recent census estimates place the numberof Christians at 2.09 million and the Ahmadi population at 286,000. The communities themselves each claimmembership of approximately 4 million. Estimates for the remaining communities are less contested and placethe total number of Hindus at 2.8 million; Parsis (Zoroastrians), Buddhists, and Sikhs at as high as 20,000each; and Baha’is at 30,000. The "other" category includes tribes whose members practicetraditional indigenous religions and who normally do not declare themselves to be adherents of a specificreligion, and those who do not wish to practice any religion but remain silent about that fact. Socialpressure is such that few persons would admit to being unaffiliated with any religion.

Punjab is the largest province in the country; with 70 million persons, it contains almost half of thecountry's total population. Muslims are the majority in Punjab. More than 90 percent of the country'sChristians reside in Punjab, making them the largest religious minority in the province. Approximately 60percent of Punjab's Christians live in rural villages. The largest group of Christians belongs to the Churchof Pakistan, an umbrella Protestant group; the second largest group belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Therest are from different evangelical and church organizations.

Christians and Hindus each constitute approximately 1 percent of the populations of Sindh and Baluchistanprovinces. These two provinces also have a few tribes that practice traditional indigenous religions and asmall population of Parsis (approximately 7,000 persons). The Ismailis are concentrated in Karachi and thenorthern areas. The tiny but influential Parsi community is concentrated in Karachi, although some live inIslamabad and Peshawar. Christians constitute approximately 2 percent of Karachi's population. The RomanCatholic diocese of Karachi estimates that 120,000 Catholics live in Karachi, 40,000 in the rest of Sindh, and5,000 in Quetta, Baluchistan. Evangelical Christians have converted a few tribal Hindus of the lower castesfrom interior Sindh. An estimated 100,000 Hindus live in Karachi. According to local Christian sources,between 70,000 and 100,000 Christians and a few thousand Hindus live in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).

Ahmadis are concentrated in Punjab and Sindh. The spiritual center of the Ahmadi community is the large,predominantly Ahmadi town of Rabwah in Punjab.

No data are available on active participation in formal religious services or rituals. However, becausereligion is tied closely to a person's ethnic, social, and economic identity, religion often plays animportant part in daily life. Most Muslim men offer prayers at least once a week at Friday prayers, and thevast majority of Muslim men and women pray at home or at the workplace during one or more of the five dailytimes of prayer. During the month of Ramadan, many otherwise less observant Muslims fast and attend mosqueservices. Approximately 70 percent of English-speaking Roman Catholics worship regularly; a much lowerpercentage of Urdu speakers do so.

The Shikaris (a hunting caste now mostly employed as trash collectors in urban Sindh) are converts toIslam, but eat foods forbidden by Islam.

Many varieties of Hinduism are practiced, depending upon location and caste. Hindus have retained orabsorbed many traditional practices of Sindh. Hindu shrines are scattered throughout the country.Approximately 1,500 Hindu temples and shrines exist in Sindh and approximately 500 in Baluchistan. Mostshrines and temples are tiny, no more than wayside shrines. During Hindu festivals, such as Divali and Holi,attendance is much greater.

The Sikh community regularly holds ceremonial gatherings at sacred places in the Punjab. Prominent placesof Sikh pilgrimage include Nanakana Sahib (where the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, was born),Hasan Abdal (a shrine where an imprint of his hand his kept), and Andkartar Poora or Daira Baba Nanak Sahib inSialkot District (where Guru Nanak is buried).

Parsis, who practice the Zoroastrian religion, have no regularly scheduled congregational services, exceptfor a 10-day festival in August during which they celebrate the New Year and pray for the dead. All Parsis areexpected to attend these services; most reportedly do. During the rest of the year, individuals offer prayersat Parsi temples. Parsis maintain a conscious creedal and ceremonial separation from other religions,preserving rites and forbidding marriage to members of other religions.

Only one group described by the authorities as a "foreign cult" reportedly has been establishedin the country. In Karachi members of the U.S.-based "Children of God" are rumored to be operating acommune where they practice polygamy. However, during the period covered by this report, there was no evidencethat this group existed.

Foreign missionaries operate in the country. The largest Christian mission group operating in Sindh andBaluchistan engages in Bible translation for the Church of Pakistan (a united church of Anglicans, Methodists,Presbyterians, and Lutherans), mostly in tribal areas. An Anglican missionary group fields severalmissionaries to assist the Church of Pakistan in administrative and educational work. Roman Catholicmissionaries, mostly Franciscan, work with persons with disabilities.

Section II. Status of Religious Freedom

Legal/Policy Framework

The suspended Constitution provided for freedom of religion, and stated that adequate provisions shall bemade for minorities to profess and practice their religions freely; however, the Government imposed limits onfreedom of religion. The suspended Constitution also provided that there was no taxation for propagation of areligion that is not one's own; no obligation to receive instruction in a religion that is not one's own; andno denial of admission to public schools on the basis of religion. According to the suspended Constitution,the country was an Islamic republic, and Islam was the state religion. Islam also was a core element of thecountry’s national ideology; the country was created to be a homeland for Muslims. Under the suspendedConstitution, both the President and the Prime Minister were to be Muslims, and all senior officials wererequired to swear an oath to preserve the country’s "Islamic ideology." Freedom of speech wasprovided for; however, this right is subject to "reasonable restrictions" that can be imposed"in the interest of the glory of Islam." Actions or speech deemed derogatory to Islam or to itsProphets are not protected. Under the suspended Constitution, the Ahmadi community is defined as non-Muslimbecause Ahmadis do not believe that Mohammed was the last prophet of Islam; however, most Ahmadis considerthemselves Muslims. In 2000 the Government incorporated the Islamic provisions of the suspended Constitutioninto the Provisional Constitutional Order, including the clause declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims.

The suspended Constitution protected religious minorities from being taxed to support the majorityreligion; no one could be forced to pay taxes for the support of any religion other than his own. For example,Sunni Muslims are subject to the "zakat," a religious tax of 2.5 percent of their income; however,Shi'a Muslims and other religious minorities do not pay the "zakat."

Separate categories exist for different religions in the administration of specific religious sites. Hindusand Sikhs, because of population shifts that occurred between India and Pakistan after partition, come underthe auspices of the Evacuee Property Board, which is located in Lahore and is empowered to settle disputesregarding Hindu and Sikh property. However, Hindus and Sikhs also may settle such disputes in civil courts.Christian churches are free to take their disputes over religious property and management to the courts. Someminorities have expressed displeasure over government management of religious property.

In Sindh, Muslim mosques and shrines come under the purview of the Auqaf Administration Department, abranch of the provincial government devoted to the upkeep of shrines and mosques, facilities for pilgrims, andthe resolution of disputes over possession of a religious site. In both Sindh and Baluchistan, the Governmenthas provided funds for the upkeep and repair of the Hindu Gurumander temple in Karachi and funded the repairof Hindu temples damaged by Muslim rioters protesting the destruction of the Babri mosque by Hindu mobs inAyodhya, India, in 1992.

Permission to buy land comes from one municipal bureaucracy, and permission to build a house of worshipfrom another. For all religious groups, the process appears to be subject to bureaucratic delays and requestsfor bribes.

The suspended Constitution safeguarded "educational institutions with respect to religion." Forexample, under the suspended Constitution, no student could be forced to receive religious instruction or toparticipate in religious worship other than his or her own. The denial of religious instruction for studentsof any religious community or denomination also was prohibited under the suspended Constitution.

"Islamiyyat" (Islamic studies) is compulsory for all Muslim students in state-run schools.Although students of other faiths legally are not required to study Islam, they are not provided with parallelstudies in their own religions. In practice teachers compel many non-Muslim students to complete Islamicstudies.

The suspended Constitution specifically prohibits discriminatory admission to any governmental educationalinstitution solely on the basis of religion. Government officials state that the only factors affectingadmission to governmental educational institutions are students' grades and home provinces. However, studentsmust declare their religion on application forms. Muslim students must declare in writing that they believe inthe unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Mohammed; non-Muslims must have their religion verified by thehead of their local religious community. Many Ahmadis and Christians reported discrimination in applying togovernment educational institutions due to their religious affiliation.

Several Muslim religious holidays are considered national holidays, including Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Azha,Muharram (Shi'a), and the Prophet Mohammed's Birthday. Most businesses have limited hours during the month ofRamadan.

On June 19, 2002, the Government announced the Madrassah Registration Ordinance of 2002, which went intoeffect immediately. Under the ordinance, all madrassahs (religious schools) were required to register with thePakistan madrassah Education Board and provincial boards. Madrassahs failing to do so may be fined or closed.The madrassahs no longer are allowed to accept grants or foreign aid from foreign sources, although madrassahsoffering courses in science, math, Urdu, and English are eligible for government funds. Foreign madrassahstudents are to be required to obtain no objection certificates. Madrassahs were given 6 months to comply. Theordinance was designed to regulate the madrassahs, where many poor children are educated, and combat religiousextremism.

In December 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that all forms of interest (riba) are un-Islamic and directed theGovernment to implement an interest-free banking and financial system by June. In June 2001, th Shari'aAppellate Bench of the Supreme Court extended for 1 year the deadline for implementation of this judgement.However, on June 24, 2002, the Supreme Court vacated the earlier decision and remanded the case to the FederalShariat Court for reconsideration.

Restrictions on Religious Freedom

The Government does not ban formally the public practice of the Ahmadi religion, but the practice of theAhmadi faith is restricted severely by law. A 1974 constitutional amendment declared Ahmadis to be anon-Muslim minority because, according to the Government, they do not accept Mohammed as the last Prophet ofIslam.