Freedom of
thought, conscience
and religion
Fundamental
freedoms
... It is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an
order ... wherein shall be guaranteed fundamental rights,
including equality of status, of opportunity and before law,
social, economic and political justice, and freedom of
thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and
association, subject to law and public morality
Constitution of Pakistan
Preamble
Subject to law, public order and morality (a) every citizen
shall have the right to profess, practise and propagate his
religion; and (b) every religious denomination and every
sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and
manage its religious institutions.
Article 20
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and
should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion; this right includes freedom to change his
religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.
Article 18
No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his
freedom to have a religion or belief of his choice.
No one shall be subject to discrimination by any state,
institution, group of persons, or person on the grounds of
religion or other belief.
UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief
Articles 1(2) and 2(1)
Despite repeated promises by those in authority to safeguard the
rights and the very lives of religious minorities in Pakistan, faith-based
violence and discrimination remained prevalent in many parts of the
country in 2015.
01
In addition to the security-related apprehensions of religious
minorities, lack of tolerance and of education and scarcity of forums
for inter-faith dialogue also contributed to a context where many from
the religious minority communities felt excluded or thought that the
issues of concern to them were not part of the decision-makers'
priorities.
Complaints of forced conversion of young girls from religious
minority communities, particularly Hindu girls in Sindh, to Islam
have been raised as a particular concern by the religious minority over
the years.In late November, the Senate Functional Committee on
Human Rights endorsed a move to criminalise forced conversions and
to prevent misuse of the blasphemy law.
In its meeting on November 26, the senate body proposed that a law
should be made to ensure that no one was able to force anyone to
convert to another religion and that doing so should be declared a
crime. However, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in a meeting
soon afterwards strongly opposed any such legislation.
Religious and sectarian minorities were targeted by militants across
Pakistan in 2015. In most cases, the perpetrators enjoyed impunity.
Meaningful reform in the blasphemy legislation did not materialise in
2015 either.
There were reports of members of religious minorities, including
Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis, migrating to other counties because
Members of religious minorities, including Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis
faced faith-based violence
02
State of Human Rights in 2015
of fear of faith-based violence, while some sectarian minorities were
displaced within Pakistan. The citizens who moved abroad faced
many hardships, including Christians who had traveled to Sri Lanka
and Thailand in the hope of seeking asylum there or in a third country,
but had been stuck there without any hope of finding a permanent
sanctuary.
The HRCP Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable because of their
Beliefa forum that hassince 2010 brought together representatives of
religious minority communities with a view to finding answers to the
challenges confronting them on account of their faithmet twice during
2015. In the first meeting held in Hyderabad in June, the group
considered the challenges for scheduled castes. It noted that the
scheduled castes faced discrimination not only from the majority
community, but even from other minorities.
The group held its second meeting in October in Karachi, where
discrimination against Ahmadis was the focus of the discussion. The
expert group members and other participants highlighted trends and
forms of persecution and suggested recommendations to respond to
the challenges that the Ahmadi citizens faced.
Some of the main trends, incidents and challenges faced by the
religious minorities in the country during the year under review are
narrated below:
Hindus
In October, a media report suggested that around 1,200 Pakistani
Hindus had travelled to India over the past five years in order to
escape discrimination and religious persecution. Many were reported
to have cited challenges in educating their children and harassment of
women. A group, which claimed to have arrived in India in 2011, said
they had left Hyderabad district in Pakistan to escape “religious and
cultural persecution and government apathy”.
A Hindu man, who was reportedly regarded as the leader of Pakistani
Hindus housed in three camps in Delhi, said that the Pakistani Hindus
felt frustrated in India because they had applied for Indian nationality
in 2011 but nothing had happened.
The Hindu community in Pakistan has long decried absence of a
codified personal law and the consequent lack of a marriage
registration mechanism, and other rights in marriage. A Hindu
Marriage Bill was still pending in parliament at the end of 2015. In the
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
03
The Supreme Court asked KP government to get a Hindu temple rebuilt in
Karak
absence of a marriage law for the community,the Hindu spouses could
often prove their marriage only by producinginvitation cards for their
wedding or pictures of the ceremony. Lack of specific personal law
also made it difficult for the community to resolve inheritance
disputes.
According to the head of Pakistan Hindu Seva (PHS) welfare trust, at
least five cases of forced conversions were reported in Sindh during
the first seven months of 2015. Speaking at the Karachi Press Club, he
said that the Hindu community had no objection if anyone opted to
convert to Islam of their own volition. He claimed, however, that in
only 20 per cent of the cases could conversion of a Hindu girl to Islam
could be called voluntary and not forced upon her after abduction.
In April, the Supreme Court directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government to get a destroyed Hindu templelocated in Karak district
restored and reconstructed. A member of the National Assembly
(MNA) had drawn the court's attention towards the occupation of Shri
Paramhans Ji Maharaj's Samadhi in Teri village of Karak by an
influential cleric.
The counsel representing the government had informed the court that
efforts were underway for an amicable settlement. Previous attempts
for preservation of the temple had led to a rift between the minority
community and the local clerics.
04
State of Human Rights in 2015
The MNA stated that he had met the provincial chief secretary, the
police chief and the local commissioner, but had been informed that
the Hindu notable in whose name the temple was built had converted
to Islam.
In May, the government informed the court that reconstruction of the
temple had started. A report submitted in court on behalf of the district
administration stated that the reconstruction took place after several
meetings of the administration with the local clerics.
The government stated that in order to preserve harmony between the
religious communities, the reconstruction work was subject to the
following conditions to which both religious communities had
agreed: the Hindu community would not preach their religion and
only offer their prayersin the temple; they would not arrange any big
religious gatherings at the temple; they would not construct any largescale big prayer place at the location; and they would restrict their
religious activities to the assigned premises and not acquire more land
in the area.
In August, the Supreme Court proposed that a renowned architect
should be employed to rebuild the temple, as had been done in case of
a temple in Lahore a few years earlier. The court asked the MNA, the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa home secretary and the Karak deputy
commissioner to sit together and come up with a plan to rebuild the
temple. The chief justice, who headed the three-member bench
hearing the case, said that the order must not be defied and should be
implemented at all cost.
The deputy commissioner informed the court that its earlier order
about restoration of the temple had been carried out and a boundary
wall built around it. He submitted photographs in court as evidence of
his claim.
He said that the authorities had given the right of way to reach the
temple through the house of the cleric, who was earlier in possession
of the temple.
The court declared the efforts by the provincial administration
insufficient and proposed construction of a new building instead of
just erecting boundary walls.
In May, members of the Hindu community in Mehrabpur locality in
Naushehro Feroze district held a demonstration to protest alleged
harassment by members of an influential tribe.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
05
The said that the clansmen were extending death threats to Hindu
leaders and visitors to the main temple in the city and hindering
performance of their religious rituals and worship there.
The protesters said that instead of filing a case, the police had advised
them to resolve the matter through talks. They said that because of the
panic created the Hindu families near the temple were contemplating
migration.
In November, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended a Diwali
function in Karachi where he vowed to protect religious communities
against injustice. He praised the Hindu community's contribution to
Pakistan's development, especially in the fields of education, sports,
healthcare and judiciary.
Ahmadis
The Ahmadis were declared non-Muslim in Pakistan through a
constitutional amendment in 1974. The law has barred them from
identifying themselves as Muslims and preaching in public.
According to a media report in early 2015, many Ahmadis from
Pakistan had fled to Sri Lanka where they hoped to seek asylum,
because they felt discriminated against and persecuted at home. It had
been suggested that Ahmadis were the most severely persecuted
religious group in Pakistan.
Ahmadis faced faith-based discrimination and harassment at
educational institutions and in the workplace. Even though there was
one electoral list for all Pakistanis, irrespective of faith, Ahmadis were
on a separate list. They repeatedlycalled for inclusion in the joint
electoral list and chose not to participate in the elections in protest
against the discriminatory exclusion from the joint electoral list,that
had effectively closed the doors on Ahmadis' political participation or
having a say in how the affairs of the state were managed.
Several incidents of faith-based violence targeting the Ahmadis were
reported during the year.
In August, in Taunsa city of Punjab, armed gunmen on two
motorcycles shot and killed an Ahmadi owner of a pharmacy. The
killers were not apprehended.
In October, in Karachi, unidentified gunmen shot and injured an
Ahmadi and his two nephews when they were returning home from a
worship place.
06
State of Human Rights in 2015
In November 20, in Jhelum district of Punjab, a mob torched a chipmaking factory owned by an Ahmadi after someone apparently went
to a local cleric and claimed that pages of the Holy Quranhad been
thrown in the factory furnace.Without any effort to substantiate the
claim, announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers that the
holy book had been desecrated at the Ahmadi-owned factory. A
violent mob quickly formed, which surrounded the factory, before
setting it on fire.
The following day, a mob broke through a police cordon established to
protect an Ahmadi place of worship in Jhelum and set iton fire.
Following the incident, the mob blocked the main highway passing
through Jhelum and clashed with police personnel. The army had to
be called in to restore order. There were no casualties.
The prevalence of discrimination against Ahmadis could be gauged
from an incident that took place in Lahore in December. A shopkeeper
at Hafeez Centre, one of the country's biggest markets of computers
and related merchandise, had put up a poster at his shop,which
contained derogatory remarks about Ahmadis and barred them from
entering the shop. After the news about the poster spread via social
media, the police removed the poster and arrested the offender under
the National Action Plan (NAP), a counter-terrorism strategy adopted
after a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December 2014.
Clamping down on hate speech was one of the aims of the 20-point
NAP. Hundreds of people gathered outside Hafeez Centre to
protestagainst the shop owner's arrest.
In January, two men who were in custody on the charge of
murderingdozens of Ahmadis at a place of worship in Lahore in May
2010 were convicted by an anti-terrorism court for their part in the
massacre. One of the attackers was sentenced to death and the other
imprisoned for life. This was one of the rare occasions where the
perpetrators of violence against religious and sectarian minorities
were apprehended and sentenced.
In December, at a meeting of Council of Islamic Ideology, a
constitutional body charged with advising the parliament on Shariahcompliant legislation, a fight broke out between the chairman and
another member when the former started a discussion along the lines
whether Ahmadis were non-Muslims or apostates. The member said
that the CII chairman had brought up an issue already settled in the
Constitution of Pakistan and added that reopening the discussion
would cause unrest in society.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
07
Sikhs
Most of Pakistan's Sikh citizens live in the country's northwestern
parts, which have been wracked by a violent militancy.
A sizeable number of Sikhs have been displaced from different parts of
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) over the last decade
due to the militancy.
In November, it was announced that a gurdwara in Peshawar that had
remained closed since the 1940s was set to reopen for worshippers
after 73 years. The gurdwara had been closed in 1942 after residents
complained that worship there compromised the purdah (privacy of
women). In a recent meeting of a jirga (council of elders), an agreement
was reached between the local Muslim and Sikh communities that the
Jogiwara Gurdwara would be reopened and a wall constructed near
the Gurdwara to ensure 'privacy' of the girls enrolled in the adjacent
school in line with the local culture.
The district administration hailed the agreement as “a classical
example of interfaith harmony in Peshawar”.
The reopening of the gurdwara was to makea second place of worship
available to the Sikhs in the city, who could previously only perform
their religious rites at the solitarygurdwara in Peshawar.
In April, around 2,000 Sikhs, most them from India, arrived on a 10day visit to Pakistan to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi. The visit was
facilitated by Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), agovernment
body that managed the religious places and related property of certain
religious minorities in the country.
In the first case of its kind involving the pilgrims, a family of Sikh
pilgrims went missing in April. When initial efforts to locate the fourmember family did not yield results, police suspected that the family
had gone into hiding rather than returning to India before their visa
expired. A case was lodged under the Foreigners Act.
In November, around 3,000 Sikhs arrived in Pakistan from India, and
in smaller number from some other countries, to celebrate the birth
anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, amid tight
security.
An incident shortly before the anniversary celebrations led to a case
being registered for 'anti-state activities' against Sardar Mastan Singh,
08
State of Human Rights in 2015
a former head of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee
(PSGPC). The PSGPC is a Sikh organisation managing, in
collaboration with the ETPB, the affairs of Sikh pilgrims arriving in
Pakistan.
Mastan Singh and around two dozens of his supporters were booked
in December following a complaint by the incumbent PSGPC head, on
charges related to their protest over not being permitted to rally
during a ceremony organised at Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana
on November 25, on the eve of Guru Nanak's 547th birth anniversary.
Singh was arrested a couple of days later.
He and his supporters were accused of defiling a place of worship,
jeoperdising the safety of Sikh pilgrims, chanting slogans against the
state, criminal intimidation, and obstructing public servants from
discharging their functions.
Singh's supporters called the case a vengeful ploy at the behest of the
ETPB, because Singh had petitioned court to “ expose the board's
financial malpractices”, including alleged misappropriation of land
belonging to Gurdwara Janam Asthan. Members of the community
staged a demonstration on December 18 to demand the ETPB stop
meddling in Sikhs' affairs.
Christians
Christians faced some of the most serious faith-based attacks during
the year under review. In addition to facing violence provoked by
accusations of blasphemy, the community's worship places were also
targeted by terrorists. Some media reports pointed out that many
Christian families had fled to Thailand to avoid persecution, where
they faced a plethora of difficulties.
The biggest terrorist attacks against the Christian community
occurred in the Youhanabad area of Lahore in March when two
suicide bombers attacked two churches to target worshippers
attending Sunday mass. At least 17 people were killed and more than
70 injured. A terrorist group called Jamatul Ahrar claimed the two
bombings.
Immediately after these attacks, an enraged Christian mob grabbed
hold of two men they thought were somehow connected to the attacks,
lynched them and set them on fire. It later turned out that neither was
in any way involved in the targeting of churches.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
09
Christians held demonstrations in a number of cities to protest a lack
of security for the community. The protests in Lahore turned violent
where the protesters blocked a key road and attacked bus stations.
Police arrested the persons suspected of lynching and burning the two
men. However, the community in Youhanabad complained that the
police raids were indiscriminate and that they were harassed in
several raids at their homes and rounding up of a large number of
residents from the neighbourhood.
In April, a 14-year-old Christian boy in Lahore leaving a shop where
he worked was stopped by two men, who asked him if he was a
Christian. They subsequently started beating him, doused him in
kerosene and set him on fire. He died at a hospital later. Although one
of the boy's relatives had suspected that a family dispute over
property could be the reason for the attack, others suspected that the
boy was killed because of his faith.
In May, a Christian man named Humayon, who according to a
resident of the area was mentally unstable, was accused of desecrating
pages of the Holy Quran in Dhoop Sari area of Lahore. A mob gathered
around him and tried to set him on fire, but police took him into
custody and registered a case against him under Section 295-B of the
Pakistan Penal Code. A large number of people attacked a mainly
Christian locality where the accused lived and ransacked Christians'
homes. They attempted to set a church on fire but the police managed
to stop them. Many of the Christian residents fled the area. Even after
the mob dispersed and police deployed, the residents were afraid to
return to their homes fearing a repeat of the March 2013 Joseph Colony
incident where a charged crowd had torched a scores of houses in the
Christian-dominated neighbourhood over alleged blasphemous
remarks by a resident of the area.
In July, in a village of Sheikhupura district, a mob led by a cleric
assaulted a Christian couple after accusing them of committing
blasphemy. Before the police rescued them, the crowd beat up the
couple, painted their faces black and garlanded them with wreaths
made of shoes and paraded them in the village. The police refused to
register a case against the couple and arrested the cleric and another
man for inciting violence.
In November, the office of Gawahi TV, a Karachi-based evangelical
television channel, suffered substantial damage in a fire. The channel
employees called it an arson attack and said that they had been
receiving threats for several months to stop the transmission. The
channel transmission resumed a couple of days before Christmas.
10
State of Human Rights in 2015
In December, human rights activists slammed the Islamabad
administration after court documents showed the capital's
development body, CDA, had cracked down on illegal slums partly
because it feared the growing Christian population there could lead to
'demographic problems'.
CDA had declared war on katchi abadis (illegal slums) in Islamabad,
saying the areas, largely populated by Christians and Afghan
refugees, were illegal and havens for militants.The drive had rendered
hundreds homeless.
The left-wing Awami Workers Party had sought the Supreme Court's
intervention to halt the drive. The court had ordered written
justification from the CDA for its actions.Part of the CDAreply, which
was also criticised for its poor English, stated: “It is necessary to
identify the fact that most of the katchi abadis are under the
occupation of the Christian community who are shifted from
Narowal, Sheikhupura, Shakargarh, Sialkot, Kasur, Sahiwal and
Faisalabad [districts of Punjab] and occupied the Government land so
boldly as if it has been allotted to them and it seems this pace of
occupation of land may affect the Muslim majority of the capital.”This
statement offered a glimpse into the minds of those who ran the affairs
of the federal capital. Activists cited such sentiments as evidence of
bigotry in high places.
Blasphemy law
Accusations under Pakistan's blasphemy law can prove life
threatening for the accused even before they are arrested and tried in
court, or even if the accusations against them are utterly unfounded. A
chapter in Pakistan Penal Code on 'Offences Relating to
Religion'covers more than just blasphemy but is collectively referred
to as the blasphemy law.
There have been several incidents where mobs of zealots have killed or
assaulted blasphemy accused. The accused who are taken into police
custodyare somewhat safer. However, there have been cases of
someaccused facing violence in custody, sometimes even at the hands
of policemen.
Even though more the majority of blasphemy accused in Pakistan
have been Muslim, the percentage of blasphemy accused from other
faiths is disproportionately higher compared to the overall population
numbers of religious minorities. Furthermore, members of minority
communities are at a much greater disadvantage and risk than
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
11
someone from the majority community who has the misfortune of
facing such a charge.
Even if they are acquitted, the people who have once been accused of
blasphemy are seldom able to go back to their homes. Seeking asylum
in another country becomes the only way out for many.
Even lawyers and judges associated with blasphemy cases are not safe
and have at times been threatened inside courtrooms. The
assassination of human rights lawyer Rashid Rehman in 2014 for
daring to represent a blasphemy accused is just one example of that.
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman arrested for making allegedly
blasphemous remarks four years ago, remained in custody. The death
sentence given to her by a trial court was upheld in October2014 by a
high court in Lahore. In July 2015, the Supreme Court suspended her
execution until the apex court decided her appeal. Her husband and
children have been living in hiding since the accusation against her
was first leveled.
The government had not pushed for any reform of the blasphemy law
since 2011, when two prominent politiciansPunjab governor Salmaan
Taseer and federal minister of religious affairs Shahbaz Bhattiwere
killed for speaking out against the law.
In October, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence given to
Taseer's police guard Mumtaz Qadri, who had murdered the
governor for criticising the blasphemy law.
In its judgement, the Supreme Court stated that criticizing the
blasphemy law or calling for its reform did not amount to blasphemy.
During the year under review, 22 individuals were booked on the
charge of blasphemy, under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.
These included 15 Muslims, four Christians and three Ahmadis. [See
also the chapter 'Administration of Justice']
Sectarian violence
The scourge of sectarian violence continued to wreak havoc during the
year under review, although the number of attacks and casualties
decreased somewhat compared to previous years, apparently because
of some long-delayed action under a national strategy to counter
terrorism and militant extremism.
Media reports indicated that some families belonging to sectarian
minorities, especially the Hazara community in Balochistan,
12
State of Human Rights in 2015
continued to shift to Pakistan's major cities, which they considered
more secure.
In September, the interior minister declared that waging a war on
sectarianism was the government's main priority. However, brutal
sectarian attacks continued to target citizens.
According to a report by Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security
Studies, there had been a decline in militant attacks since the National
Action Plan was launched in December 2014. A report by Islamabadbased research organisation Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS)
noted that 58 incidents of sectarian violence had been reported from
across Pakistan in 2015. All of these were sectarian-related terrorist
attacks and no clashes between various Muslim sects were reported in
the year under review. This represented a 59 percent decrease
compared to the year 2014, when 144 incidents of sectarian violence
had occurred.
Despite the reduction in incidents of sectarian violence, some attacks
represented particular deterioration. That was the case in Sindh,
which had long been a centre of Sufism and had been known for its
tradition of harmonious co-existence of people of various faiths. Two
major sectarian attacks targeted members of the Shia sect in Sindh in
2015. In Shikarpur district of Sindh, a suicide attack on a Shia mosque
killed more than 60 people in January. In Jacobabad district, 24 people
were killed when a Moharram procession was targeted in a bombing
in October. One day earlier, a similar attack outside a Shia mosque in
Balochistan's Bolan district had caused the death of 11 people.
Many attacks on the Shia citizens were believed to be the work of
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), an extremist group. In July, the group's
founder, Malik Ishaq, was killed along with 13 other people in a
gunfight with police in Muzaffargarh.
Another most wanted terrorist Mohammad Usman alias Saifullah
Kurd, who was chief of the LeJin Balochistan was killed in a firefight
with the police in Quetta in February.
The same month, a prayer leader was arrested in Kasur district for
inciting hatred against the Shia sect through his sermon. In May, an
anti-terrorism court sentenced him to serve five years in prison.
On May 25, unidentified gunmen on motorbikes launched three
separate attacks against the Hazara community in Quetta, killing four
persons and injuring nine. In search of safety, large numbers of Hazara
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
13
citizens in Quetta have relocated to enclaves exclusive to their
community over the years.
In May, six gunmen in Karachi boarded a bus carrying members of the
Ismaili community and executed 43 out of around 60 passengers. Most
of the victims were killed with a single bullet to the head. Thirteen
passengers were injured. The bus belonged to a housing project of the
Ismaili community in Karachi. The fatalities included 16 women.
Recommendations
•
The government should take concrete steps in consultation
with the affected communities to prevent the exodus of
religious minorities on account of faith-based violence and
discrimination. It should also fulfill its obligation to
rehabilitate those who are displaced internally.
•
Provisions should be made to increase tolerance, harmony
and co-existence among the various religious groups.
Effective forums for inter-religious discussions should be
established and steps taken to make sure that no citizen is
denied her or his democratic right to have a say on how the
affairs of the state are managed.
•
Urgent reform is warranted to put an end to abuse of the
blasphemy law. A clear roadmap should be devised for that
after taking on board all stakeholders who can contribute to
achieving that objective. Protection must be provided to the
accused, as well as to the lawyers, judges and witnesses in
blasphemy cases.
•
All instances of hate speech and activities of banned extremist
organizations should be curbed. Militant groups, banned or
otherwise, which engage in perpetrating violence or hate
speech need to be brought to justice.
•
Absence of and deficiencies in the personal laws of religious
minorities should be addressed without further delay. This
must be done in consultation with the communities in
question.
14
State of Human Rights in 2015