Religious Minorities in Pakistan

The religious minorities in Pakistan are Hindus, Christians, Kalasha, Bahais, Parsis and Sikhs, and minority Muslim sects like Zikri, Ahmadiya and Shia (including Bohras, Ismailis, Dawoodis, Khojas).

According to the 1941 census of India, there were 5.9 million non-Muslims in the territories that came to form Pakistan in 1947 (West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). During and after Pakistan's independence in 1947, about 5 million Hindus and Sikhs emigrated to India, with Punjab alone accounting for migration of 3.9 million people. According to the 1951 census conducted by the Government of Pakistan, Pakistan had 1.6% Hindu population. In East Pakistan (Bangladesh), non-Muslims comprised 23.2% of the total population. Much of the decrease in minority populations in Pakistan has occurred due to the events surrounding Partition, and the wars of 1965 and 1971. By 1997, the percentage of Hindus remained stable at 1.85% in Pakistan, while Bangladesh has witnessed a decline to 9.2% by 2011. In Pakistan, religious minorities along with women, and transgender individuals remain subject to violence, discrimination, and persecution. Authorities frequently fall short in providing sufficient protection and holding perpetrators accountable for their actions.

Forced conversions and marriages occur largely in rural and backward areas in Pakistan. In November 2019, Pakistan formed parliamentary committee to stop the act of forced conversion in the country. However, according to Pakistan Hindu Panchayat general secretary Ravi Dawani, most of the religious conversions involving minority girls are result of love.

According to the Western religious freedom and human rights monitoring group Global Human Rights Defence, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the United States Department of State, religious minorities face severe discrimination in Pakistan.

However in recent years, Pakistan has seen development in safeguarding the rights of the minorities. For instance in 2019, Supreme Court of Pakistan gave verdict that Christians would be able to register their marriages with an official marriage certificate. In another case, Pakistan opened the Kartarpur Corridor, allowing Sikh pilgrims from around the world to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, one of the holiest shrines in Sikhism, as a goodwill gesture towards minorities. Similarly, a judge in Pakistan nullified the "free-will" marriage of a Hindu girl, Mehik Kumari, and confirmed that she was underage when she "embraced" Islam and married a Muslim man. Activists had argued that Kumari was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam.

Since these events, Pakistan has given over 1 million non-Muslims the right to vote. The number rose to 4.43 million from 3.63 million since 2018.

Despite new allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings emerging, the government of Pakistan has not taken adequate measures to hold law enforcement agencies accountable for these serious abuses. Additionally, Islamist militants have carried out attacks targeting law enforcement officials and religious minorities, resulting in the loss of dozens of lives.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws illustrate one of the most extreme instances of this issue: Since 1990, over 62 individuals have fallen victim to vigilante violence linked to blasphemy accusations. The repercussions of this legal and political marginalization are acutely felt by religious minority groups, impacting their daily lives significantly.

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