In mid-2023 Jubilee Campaign, Set My People Free, and Voice for Justice submitted a report on human rights and religious freedom developments in Pakistan to the UN Human Rights Committee as a contribution to its List of Issues for Pakistan to address. Providing written reports to the Committee provides civil society organizations the opportunity to indirectly ‘confront’ United Nations Member States – such as Pakistan – regarding specific legal developments, criminal cases, and personal stories which may contradict these countries’ purported commitment to advancing human rights.
The Committee submitted its List of Issues to Pakistan in November 2023, and the government of Pakistan published replies in May of 2024 in which it makes numerous unsupported claims that federal and provincial efforts are being taken to, among others: counteract the pattern by which faith minority girls are kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to Muslim men double their age; eradicate the trend of false accusations of blasphemy which in turn lead to prolonged unjust imprisonment on death row or even mob lynching by extremist groups; and foster a safe and secure environment for religious minority communities to manifest their beliefs without interference.
Numerous concerning developments have transpired within a mere four months since Pakistan’s replies in May 2024 to the Committees List of Issues, exposing the reality that negligible progress has been made to improve the situation of human rights and religious freedom. Listed below are some of the major circumstances which we – Jubilee Campaign, Voice for Justice, and Set My People – cover in detail in our most recent submission in September 2024 to the Committee. In its 142nd Session the Committee will conduct an extensive evaluation of the reports which it receives from state and non-state parties (like us), after which the Committee publishes concluding observations and makes recommendations on how the appraised country can more equitably protect civil and political rights. Our written report (1) seeks to complement those provided by other independent and impartial human rights organizations; (2) serves to provide unbiased information to counteract any and all partisan claims made by Pakistan in its State Party report; and ultimately (3) enables the Committee to envisage a well-rounded narrative of the situation of human rights in Pakistan on which it can make actionable, concrete recommendations to Pakistan.
Noteworthy Developments since the Human Rights Committee’s initial communication with Pakistan in November 2023:
- January 2024 – A special branch of the Punjab Police inquiry admitted that there was widespread abuse of blasphemy laws;
- January 2024 – Christian man Fansan Shahid was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death for purportedly sending blasphemous text messages to a local Islamic cleric; however Shahid had reportedly lost his phone in 2019 long before such alleged messages transpired;
- January 2024 – Pregnant Christian woman Rakhil Nadeem Masih was raped by a Muslim coworker at a brick kiln in Punjab, causing her to suffer a miscarriage of the child which she had nearly carried to full term;
- February 2024 – Christian sisters-in-law Rukhsana Bibi and Asifa Bibi relieved themselves in a local field and were attacked with an ax by landowner, Muslim man Abdul Rauf, who attempted to sexually assault Rukhsana;
- February 2024 – A group of Muslim men – Zaman Butt, Anas Yaseen, Adil Abdul Rehman, Ashraf Iniayat Ullah, and two others – raided a market in Gujranwala, Punjab on motorcycles, shooting at a group of Christians, killing 14-year-old Sunil Masih;
- February 2024 – A group of armed radical Muslims led by Imran Yousaf shot indiscriminately and launched fuel bombs at Christian homes in Punjab in an act of retaliation for the community’s construction of a church; no injuries or deaths occurred, and the assailants remain at large;
- February 2024 – Christian youth Noman Masih was acquitted of blasphemy; however, he was originally charged and convicted twice in two separate cities – constituting an illegal act of double jeopardy – and his second conviction and death sentence remain in effect; Masih passed his high school exams in prison in July 2024;
- February 2024 – 10-year-old Christian girl Laiba Suhail was kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam, and married to Muslim man Shaukat Shah; authorities intervened to rescue Laiba and place her in a shelter, where Shah subsequently abducted her again;
- March 2024 – The Supreme Court sought input from the Council of Islamic Ideology and two Christian entities as regards whether Christian man Anwar Kenneth, imprisoned since 2001, can justifiably be executed;
- March 2024 – 13-year-old Christian girl Roshni Shakeel was kidnapped from her home by Muslim man Muazzam Mazhar who forced her to accept Islam and married her;
- March 2024 – Christian father Muskan Salman reluctantly removed his 15-year-old daughter Muskan from school after she told him that Muslim man Arsalan Ali was repeatedly harassing her while she traveled to class; Ali later abducted Muskan;
- March 2024 – Christian girl Chanda Maharaj, was ordered to return to her Muslim ‘husband’ who had in 2022 abducted her, forced her to accept Islam, and married her despite her status as a minor;
- March 2024 – Muslim university student Junaid Munir was officially convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in connection with accusations that in 2022 he shared videos online which demeaned the Prophet;
- April 2024 – Christian farmhand Waqas Masih was beaten and shot by his Muslim employers Luqman and Imran Jutt after he requested his wages so that he could purchase Easter presents for his children;
- April 2024 – Christian high schooler Ashbeel Baber Ghouri was suspended from school and charged with blasphemy after he had a minor online dispute with a Muslim classmate regarding faith;
- April 2024 – Sarah Ahmad, Chair of the Child Protection & Welfare Bureau and member of the Punjab Assembly, introduced a revised provincial legislation, Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, which would standardize the minimum age of marriage at 18 years for men and women;
- April 2024 – 13-year-old Christian girl Sania Ameen was abducted by Muslim man Saif Ali while she was returning home from an errand; Ali subsequently coerced her to accept Islam and married her;
- May 2024 – The health of Christian man Zafar Bhatti, imprisoned on fabricated blasphemy charges since 2012, is deteriorating, as he is now only able to eat vegetables and consume small quantities of water; the same month, his appeal was again postponed as no judge was willing to preside over his controversial case;
- May 2024 – Christian sanitation worker and father of four, Yasir Masih, was beaten, restrained to a chair, and left outside in the extreme heat by his Muslim employer Malik Khadim Hussain and his family after he delayed cleaning their home;
- May 2024 – 24-year-old Christian mother of two Saima Bibi was shoved into a chaff cutter by her Muslim employer who was angry that she was not cutting fodder for his cattle; she sustained lacerations on her head and is recovering, meanwhile the perpetrator has evaded arrest;
- May 2024 – Elderly Christian man Nazir Masih was brutally beaten in the streets by a radical Muslim mob after members of an Islamist group used mosque loudspeakers to accuse Masih of blasphemy and encourage retaliation; Masih later passed away in hospital due to his injuries, and his wife Allah Rakhi Bibi suffered a fatal cardiac episode the following month;
- June 2024 – Christian man Ehsaan Masih was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death for allegedly sharing images of desecrated pages of the Quran online during the height of the Jaranwala, Faisalabad mob incident;
- June 2024 – Muhammad Ismail, a Muslim tourist visiting Swat Valley, was lynched and had his naked corpse dragged through the streets and burned by a mob of radical Muslims who accused him of blasphemy;
- June 2024 – 18-year-old Catholic man Waqas Salamat was tortured to death by his Muslim employer at a plastic bottle manufacturing factory in Lahore after he had stopped attending work to pursue other employment opportunities;
- June 2024 – 14-year-old Christian girl Alina Khalid was abducted from her home, forced to convert to Islam, and married by local Muslim butcher Haider Ali;
- June 2024 – Christian woman Stella Khawar was baselessly implicated in pre-existing charges of blasphemy which were originally attributed to anonymous individuals;
- June 2024 – Christian rickshaw operator Dennis Albert was charged with “hurting religious sentiments” after he allegedly exited his vehicle and accidentally stepped on littered papers containing Islamic phrases;
- June 2024 – Christian ambulance driver and father of two Chand Shamaun was charged with blasphemy a day after he had a property inheritance dispute with one of his siblings;
- July 2024 – President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act which would raise the minimum marriageable age to 18 years for Christian men and women;
- July 2024 – Christian mother Sonia Mehboob reported that her 15-year-old Christian daughter was attacked while returning from the store by two Muslim men who forced her to ingest drug-laced water and subsequently raped her while she was unconscious;
- July 2024 – Catholic father of four Marshall Masih was shot 16 times and killed in his home by Muslim neighbors Muhammad Shani and Azam Ali, whom Masih had previously reported to police for harassing local Christian women;
- July 2024 – Christian sisters 18-year-old Saneha and 13-year-old Neha Javed were kidnapped by Muslim brothers Muhammad Zain and Muhammad Ali;
- August 2024 – A mob of radical Muslims attempted to kill Christian mother Saima Masih who they accused of desecrating the Quran; authorities rescued her before she was beaten beyond recovery but have since charged her with blasphemy rather than taking punitive measures against her attackers;
- August 2024 – 12-year-old Christian girl Fairy Shaukat was kidnapped by Muslim man Muhammad Asad while she returned from the grocery store;
- August 2024 – An unnamed 17-year-old Catholic girl from Punjab province’s Bahawalpur District was abducted from her home by a group of Muslim men who would go on to rape and physically torture their victim until police rescued her in early September; authorities have only arrested one of the suspects, and the victim’s parents have faced threats from the perpetrators’ parents to reach a settlement and forego criminal procedures;
- September 2024 – Christian mother of four Shagufta Kiran was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in connection with allegedly blasphemous content she inadvertently forwarded in a WhatsApp messaging group;
- September 2024 – 7th grade Hindu girl Meena Lohar was abducted and married to Muslim ‘youth’ Asif Kanhabar;
- September 2024 – An unnamed police officer in Balochistan entered a police station pretending to be the relative of a Muslim man who was detained on blasphemy charges for allegedly speaking ill of the Prophet; Upon entry, the officer shot and killed the man;
- September 2024 – Christian teenager Diya Iftikhar was abducted from her home in Jaranwala by Muslim man Ghazal Jutt who forced her to convert to Islam and married her;
- September 2024 – Christian twin brothers Tabish Shahid and Yeshua Kalu Shahid were accused of blasphemy after they visited a shrine on a holiday to watch Muslim festivities and reportedly began throwing papers – later reported to be pages of Islamic script – in the air; it is believed that Tabish and Yeshua, hailing from an impoverished uneducated family, were illiterate and did not identify the papers as being of significance;
- September 2024 – Medical doctor Shahnawaz Kanbhar was shot and killed by authorities in Sindh province who had reportedly stopped him for a driving infraction; police officials claim that the death was incidental and that they were not aware that Dr. Kanbhar was accused of blasphemy;