As a result, the maps are designed to give a general overview of where significant Shia population centers, zones of influence, and points of interest . In February, the National Assembly introduced a draft law requiring internet and technology companies to open offices in Islamabad, locate their servers within the country, and remove objectionable internet content within a specified timeframe. The incident was the first attack on a Hindu temple in Tharparkar in more than 30 years. On November 20 in a rural area of Punjab, a teenage boy killed Ahmadi doctor Tahir Ahmad and seriously wounded three of his family members. We call upon authorities to ensure the safety of all Pakistanis.. The government may use the antiterrorism courts, established as a parallel legal structure under the 1997 Antiterrorism Act, to try cases involving violent crimes, terrorist activities, and acts or speech deemed by the government to foment religious hatred, including blasphemy. The constitution states this requirement shall not affect the personal laws of non-Muslim citizens or their status as citizens. Although a sizeable. Total. . The girls family said they feared she had been forced to convert and marry a Muslim. According to the 2017 Census, Muslims make up 96.2 percent of Pakistan's population, Hindus 1.6 percent, Christians 1.59 percent, Scheduled Castes 0.25 percent, Ahmadis 0.22 percent, and other minorities 0.07 percent. Community leaders continued to report that the government hindered Ahmadis from obtaining legal documents and pressured community members to deny their beliefs by requiring individuals wishing to be listed as Muslim on identity cards and passports to swear Mohammed was the final prophet of Islam and the Ahmadiyya movements founder was a false prophet. Hindu Dalits remained vulnerable to human rights violations and pressure by perpetrators to withdraw police cases. Police intervened on multiple occasions to quell mob violence directed at individuals accused of blasphemy. An additional six Sikh gurdwaras and seven Hindu temples were also reopened after renovation in Punjab. Median age total: 33.7 years male: 33.1 years Despite their well-documented extremist positions, over the past two years TLP and ASWJ have been allowed to assemble, make public anti-Shia speeches, carry out rallies, run for political office and mobilise against the Shia community, ensuring their power and influence in Pakistan has gone from strength to strength. Population of males is 106018220 and females is 101344632. In July, Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam [protection of foundation of Islam bill] was passed by the Punjab assembly, which supported only the Sunni interpretation of Islam, provoking a huge backlash from the Shia community. In all these cases, judges repeatedly delayed hearings, adjourned hearings without hearing arguments, or sent appeals to other judicial benches. Ahmadi representatives said the wording of the declaration students were required to sign on their applications for admission to universities continued to prevent Ahmadis from declaring themselves as Muslims. The high circulation daily Jang also published a lengthy editorial on the struggle to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims in a special magazine edition. The law prohibits publishing any criticism of Islam or its prophets or insults to others religious beliefs. Authorities provided enhanced security for Shia Muslim, Christian, and Hindu places of worship at various times throughout the year, including around particular religious holidays or in response to specific threats. In September, unidentified gunmen killed two prominent members of the local Shia community in the Kohat District of that province. The complainant said the three men hurt the belief of Muslims by engaging in Islamic rituals as non-Muslims. Shias living in Pakistani cities increasingly became victim of target killings and the worst ever anti-Shia pogrom took place in Gilgit Baltistan in early 1980s in which radical tribal elements. According to AsiaNews, once Khan learned the family was Christian, he ordered them to leave immediately, because Christians are enemies of Islam. After harassing the family for a few days, Khan gave them a 24-hour ultimatum to leave. The Sindh provincial government has legislation allowing couples to seek divorce and granting Hindu women the right to remarry six months after a divorce or a spouses death. This was part of an increase in anti-Shia activity that month nationwide that included the shooting of a prominent Shia religious leader in Punjabs Mandi Bahauddin District and the shooting of a Shia employee of the National Bank of Pakistan in Islamabad. Ahmadiyya leaders stated the ambiguous wording of the legal provision forbidding Ahmadis from directly or indirectly identifying themselves as Muslims enabled officials to bring charges against members of the community for using the standard Islamic greeting or for naming their children Mohammed. Sanjay Mathrani, a former participant in a U.S. government exchange program, was a featured speaker. Also in September, according to law enforcement reports, Peshawar police rescued an Ahmadi family after a large mob gathered outside their home, accusing the family of preaching Ahmadi beliefs. The law requires elected Muslim officials to swear an oath affirming their belief that Mohammed is the final prophet of Islam. Department of State programs, including outreach activities such as speakers and workshops, helped to promote peacebuilding among religious and community leaders. According to NGOs and media reports, individuals convicted and sentenced to death in well-publicized blasphemy cases dating as far back as 2014 including Nadeem James; Taimoor Raza; Junaid Hafeez; Mubasher, Ghulam, and Ehsan Ahmed; Shafqat Emmanuel; and Shagufta Kausar remained in prison and continued to await action on their appeals. According to the bill, all publishers would be required to submit to the Directorate General Public Relations, the provincial government authority with jurisdiction over printing presses and publishing houses, four copies of every edition of each title they print. There were some cases in which police received custody of the accused from a court for 14 days for a senior officer to carry out an investigation. The court may suspend or increase the sentence given by a criminal court in these cases. A local jihadist group and a violent protest movement are driving renewed sectarian strife in Pakistan. A full bench of the Supreme Court may grant a further appeal. Although the government continued to implement elevated security measures around Hazara neighborhoods in Quetta, some Hazara community members continued to state that these measures had turned their neighborhoods into isolated ghettos. In its 2020 World Watch List report, the international NGO Open Doors listed Pakistan, noting that Christians face extreme persecution in every area of their lives, with converts from Islam facing the highest levels. According to Open Doors, all Christians in the country are considered second-class citizens, inferior to Muslims. The NGO stated Christians are often given jobs perceived as low, dirty and dishonorable, and can even be victims of bonded labor. The NGO also said that Christian girls in the country were increasingly at risk of abduction and rape, often forced to marry their attackers and coerced into converting to Islam.. According to Ahmadi Muslim civil society organizations, the government failed to restrict advertisements or speeches inciting anti-Ahmadi violence, as provided for in the National Action Plan. In July, police arrested four men for destroying a 1,700-year-old Gandharan civilization statue of Buddha in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a video showing one of the men hammering the statue went viral on social media. The Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act allows local government officials in that province to register marriages between a Sikh man and Sikh woman solemnized by a Sikh Anand Karaj marriage registrar. Bangladesh with a 153 million Muslim population is in 4th place followed by Nigeria (10 million) in the fifth spot. The girl remained in a government shelter for several months before returning to her parents. Sitting by his grave, she tells the story of the day she lost her brother in the attack, a sequence of bomb blasts which killed at least 45 . There are large numbers of Shia's lives in India,Pakistan, Syria, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arab. According to the SATP, at least 10 persons were killed and three injured in 10 incidents of sectarian violence by extremist groups during the year. However, violence is inevitable because the anger and anxiety on both sides seem to be mounting. The penal code does not explicitly criminalize apostasy, but renouncing Islam is widely considered by clerics to be a form of blasphemy, which can carry the death penalty. The government continued its warnings against blasphemy and other illegal content on social media through periodic print advertisements and text messages sent by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). There is a 5 percent minimum quota for hiring religious minorities (primarily Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Kalash, and Parsis but excluding Shia and Ahmadi Muslims) at the federal and provincial levels of government. In August, a case was opened against three Ahmadi men after an official of a religious seminary approached police complaining that the men sacrificed an animal on Eid al-Adha. "No one knew where I was for 21 . According to 2017 census total house hold in Pakistan are 32205111. Perpetrators of societal violence and abuses against religious minorities often faced no legal consequences due to a lack of follow-through by law enforcement, bribes offered by the accused, and pressure on victims to drop cases. The Katas Raj Hindu temple was reopened for Hindus after renovation in the Chakwal district of Punjab. They represent about 21 per cent of the total Muslim population, the highest number in a country after Iran. Although sectarian data is difficult to pin down in Afghanistan, an estimated 15 to 29 percent of the population is Shia (mostly the Twelver sect that dominates the Islamic Republic, but also some Ismaili Shia). Since 2019, the NCHR has been without a mandate for a second four-year term and lacked newly appointed commissioners, making it effectively nonfunctional throughout the year. (Goyal, 2020) There has been an even greater decline in major cities with historically large Hindu populations. Since voters who registered as Ahmadis were kept on a separate voter list, they said they were more exposed to threats and physical intimidation, and many Ahmadis continued their longstanding practice of boycotting elections. By law, decisions of the FSC may be appealed to the Supreme Courts Shariat Appellate Bench. Because of some limitations in many countries Population of Shia is not clearly known. / shia surnames in pakistan. Speaker of the Punjab Provincial Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) party leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi made numerous statements denouncing Ahmadis and any effort to undermine the status of Mohammed as Islams final prophet. Over the past month, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented rise in attacks and arrests of its Shia population, who make up between 15% and 20% of the Sunni-majority country, the largest Shia community outside Iran. The population density in Pakistan is 287 per Km 2 (742 people per mi 2 ). Sunnis are not only dominant but also the majority sect in Pakistan. These conferences were organized by groups that stated they were defending the teaching that Mohammed is the final prophet but were often characterized by both secular and Ahmadi critics as engaging in hate speech against Ahmadi Muslims. Shia Population Shia by Country (cont.) The Sindh Hindu Marriage Act also applies to Sikh marriages. In April 2021, Human Rights Watch spoke to one Pakistani Shia man who spent nearly a month in UAE detention and was released and deported in late December 2020. Hindus formed 28.45 per cent. Governor Sarwar did not sign the bill, which was promoted by the PML-Q party, noting controversy about its provisions and concerns that it could be seen as anti-Shia. The court acquitted a second Christian in December. There were reported cases of government intervention and assistance from courts and law enforcement in situations of attempted kidnapping and forced conversion, although enforcement action against alleged perpetrators was rare. Human rights and religious freedom activists and members of minority religious groups continued to report that they exercised caution and, occasionally, self-censorship when speaking in favor of religious tolerance because of a societal climate of intolerance and fear. The constitution states, Subject to law, public order, and morality, every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice, and propagate his religion. It also states, A person of the Qadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves Ahmadis) is a non-Muslim. The courts continued to enforce blasphemy laws, punishment for which ranges up to the death penalty. This requirement effectively prohibits Ahmadi Muslims from holding elected office, as they recognize a prophet subsequent to Mohammed. Status of Societal Respect for Religious Freedom, Section IV. 1.. by Senge Sering in Baltimore Post Examiner, Feb 27, 2023 The writer is the President of Gilgit Baltistan Institute in Washington D.C. After Iran and India, Pakistan has the world's third-largest Shia community, accounting for ten percent of the total population. Sources vary on the precise breakdown of the Muslim population between Sunni and Shia Muslims. No arrests were made, and no one was charged. The Sunnis, on the other hand, nurse the fear that they have decisively lost power and things . [see also: Population country ranks ] Nationality: These observers said the general refusal of lower courts to hold timely hearings or acquit those accused persisted due to fear of reprisal and vigilantism. It stated that more than 40 cases against religious minorities were registered under the blasphemy laws in August alone. A large portion of . According to data provided by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), authorities accused at least 199 individuals of new blasphemy offenses during the year. It has an estimated 23 million people who adhere to Islam. Vali Nasr claims the Shia . Pakistan 2020 population is estimated at 220,892,340 people at mid year according to UN data. Throughout the year, some government officials and politicians engaged in anti-Ahmadi rhetoric and attended events that Ahmadi Muslims said incited violence against members of their community. Minority lawmakers and civil society activists reacted strongly to the attack, stating the boys had been instigated by local Muslim clerics. Then, in mid-September, a march of more than 30,000 people, organised by extremist Sunni Muslim groups, gathered in Karachi over two days to call Shia Muslims unbelievers and blasphemers and called for their beheading. The Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training held consultations with minority faith representatives during the year in a review of textbooks for derogatory material. The economy will contract by 1.3 percent in the 2020 fiscal year because of the pandemic, the World Bank predicts. The womans family said she was pregnant at the time of her suicide and that police initially refused to file charges against the man because of his caste. Neither the National Assembly nor the Senate had acted on the 2018 judgment by years end, but Ahmadiyya community representatives said that NADRA required Ahmadis to declare in an affidavit that they are non-Muslims to obtain a national identification card, another requirement of the high court judgment. The militants were also convicted for running an al-Qaida media cell in Gujranwala. According to police, the content they posted on Facebook insulted the companions of Mohammed, which, they said, infuriated Sunni Muslims. The law bans the sale of Ahmadiyya religious literature. It also states that no religious denomination shall be prevented from providing religious instruction for pupils of its denomination in an educational institution maintained by the denomination. Ahmadi community leaders said they saw the requirement to designate Mohammed as last of the prophets as directly targeting them. Reactions to the PTAs measure was mixed, with many social media users praising the decision to ban TikTok, but others concerned that the government could use this to target religious minorities. The Shia population in Pakistan is estimated as being 11.8% of the country's population. According to religious minority activists, provincial governments also often failed to meet quotas for hiring religious minorities into the civil service. Sunnis are generally believed to be 80-85 percent of the Muslim population, and Shia Muslims, including Hazara, Ismaili, and Bohra (a branch of Ismaili), are generally believed to make up 15-20 percent. In Pakistan, Shia Muslims make up around 20% of the population, and while the country is tragically home to some of the worst sectarian violence in the world, in 2017 alone 95% of sectarian killings and violence worldwide was focused solely on Shia Muslims. According to sources, the Shia population of Pakistan is estimated to be between 10 and 15 percent (Australia 20 Feb. 2019, para. The country is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and maintains two reservations: first, that ICCPR Article 3 regarding equal rights of men and women would be applied as to be in conformity with Personal Law of the citizens and Qanoon-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (Law of Evidence), under which the in-court testimony of men in certain civil matters pertaining to contracts and financial obligations is given greater weight than that of women; and second, that ICCPR Article 25, on the equal right for citizens to take part in public service, would be subject to articles of the constitution mandating that the President and Prime Minister be Muslims. Following petitions, the court reversed its decision and declared the marriage illegal under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act and ordered the girl placed in a shelter after she refused to return to her parents. An Ahmadi trader in Peshawar was shot near his business on August 12. In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. The court ordered police to hand over the woman to her Hindu husband and no police or court action was taken against Domki. Other NGOs corroborated that 2020 had seen an increase in blasphemy cases. Both passed the recruitment test and had successful interviews but were denied appointment by the assistant manager. The constitution states, All existing laws shall be brought into conformity with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah [Islams body of traditional social and legal custom and practice]. It further states no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to Islam. Representatives of the Bahai community said this policy particularly affected them because the Bahai World Center the spiritual and administrative center of the community was in Haifa, Israel. According to a 2019 report by Pakistan's National Commission for Human Rights, an independent watchdog, at least 509 Hazara have been murdered for their faith since 2013. Despite these problems some international organizations have researched and reported some statistics. While schools were required to teach Islamic studies and the Quran to Muslim students, sources reported many non-Muslim students were also required to participate because their schools did not offer parallel courses in their own religious beliefs or ethics. Version 3.0 . Wafaqs (independent academic boards) register seminaries, regulate curricula, and issue degrees. rate of urbanization: 2.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.) Civil society members reported authorities took no action to prevent attacks on Ahmadi mosques or punish assailants who demolished, damaged, forcibly occupied, or set fire to Ahmadi mosques. On August 12, armed gunmen attacked the house of Ahmadi Muslim Syed Naeem Ahmad Bashir in the Sahiwal District of Punjab, firing into the courtyard at night, where they reportedly expected the family to be sleeping. The group also painted slogans insulting the Ahmadiyya community. The government took some measures to protect religious minorities. note: provisional results of Pakistan's 2017 national census estimate the country's total population to be 207,774,000. country comparison to the world (CIA rank, may be based on non-current data): 5. Shias in Pakistan reputedly account for about 20 percent of the population or 42 million out of the population of 210 million making it the second largest Shia population in the world . In some schools, however, non-Muslim students may study ethics. Hindu community representatives welcomed the decision to return the temple to the community after 70 years. Others said parliamentarians occupying reserved seats had little influence in their parties and in the National Assembly because they did not have a voting constituency. The constitution establishes a Federal Shariat Court (FSC) composed of Muslim judges to examine and decide whether any law or provision is repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. The constitution gives the FSC the power to examine a law of its own accord or at the request of the government or a private citizen. The constitution states that no person attending any educational institution shall be required to attend religious instruction or take part in any religious ceremony relating to a religion other than the persons own. July 2021 . On December 30, a mob estimated at 1,000 people incited by a cleric attacked an historic Hindu temple site in Karak District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, destroying the shrine of Hindu saint Shri Paramhans Jee Maharaj and an adjacent building under construction. Civil society groups continued to express concerns about the safety of religious minorities. Police took him into protective custody and transferred him to a senior police officers office as the mob blocked the Indus Highway and demanded police hand over the alleged blasphemer. Human rights groups reported an increase in blasphemy cases and allegations against members of the Shia Muslim community. Members of religious minority communities said there continued to be an inconsistent application of laws safeguarding minority rights and enforcement of protections of religious minorities at both the federal and provincial levels by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Human Rights. The victims, burned to death by an angry mob, were Babar Noman and Hafiz Naeem. The last census was conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2017. Two days later, the 21-year-old student found himself the subject of a police report, accused of violating Pakistans draconian laws on blasphemy. The government requires all madrassahs to register with the Ministry of Education in addition to registration with one of the five wafaqs. After Iran and India, Pakistan has the world's third-largest Shia community, accounting for ten percent of the total population. Most Shias (between 68% and 80%) live in just four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq. Christian activists also stated young women from their communities were vulnerable to forced conversions. Although there were no official obstacles to the advancement of minority religious group members in the military, they said that in practice, non-Muslims rarely rose above the rank of colonel and were not assigned to senior positions. On August 22, another teenage Christian escaped from the home of Mohamad Nakash, a Muslim who had kidnapped her in April and had been holding her since. In May 2000, the Shia Muslims based in the Gilgit district of the then Northern Areas began to agitate against the recently changed curriculum of government schools in the region. On October 25, a Hindu temple was vandalized in Nagarparkar, Sindh, during the nine-day Navratri celebrations. According to civil society reports, there were many individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and at least 35 under sentences of death, compared with 82 individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and 29 under sentences of death in 2019. Hindu activists in Sindh reported discrimination against the Hindu community during COVID-19 food-relief efforts by private charities. U.S. Government Policy and Engagement. He fears if he is seen on the streets of Karachi, the Pakistan city he calls home, he will be a dead man walking. . At years end, she and her alleged husband had not appeared in court in Karachi, despite multiple court orders to do so. The proposal named a prominent Hindu business owner and ruling PTI party leader as the commissions chair, along with other Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, and Kalash members. The HRCP reported that more than 40 such cases were registered under the blasphemy laws in August alone. There were a series of additional violent incidents targeting Ahmadis following the Tahir Naseem killing in a Peshawar courtroom. Courts issued two new death sentences for blasphemy and sentenced another individual to five years imprisonment. A few Protestant groups conduct missions in Pakistan. The stronghold of Barelvism remains Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan. Data on sectarian attacks varied because no standardized definition existed of what constituted a sectarian attack among reporting organizations. On July 9, the Sindh High Court ordered that the girl could return to her Hindu parents. By years end, police had dropped the case due to lack of evidence and pressure from activists. Hundreds of Shia Pakistanis gathered on Saturday to bury 11 coal miners from the Hazara community killed by the armed group ISIL (ISIS), ending a week of protests that sought to highlight the. Although there continued to be no official restriction on the construction of Ahmadiyya places of worship, according to Ahmadiyya Muslim community leaders, local authorities regularly denied requisite construction permits, and Ahmadis remained forbidden to call them mosques. Islam in Pakistan. The situation worsened further last week when an influential Sunni religious scholar, Maulana Dr Adil Khan, was killed in an attack. Taking into account the Ahmadi boycott of the official census, however, community sources put the number of Ahmadi Muslims at approximately 500,000 to 600,000. At the conference, JUI-F national leader Fazl ur Rehman praised the lawyers who were defending the teenager accused of killing U.S. citizen Tahir Naseem, a self-proclaimed Ahmadi, in Peshawar and blamed Western nations for supporting Ahmadi Muslims. The government continued to prohibit citizens, regardless of religious affiliation, from traveling to Israel. Opponents filed a petition to stop construction with the Islamabad High Court on June 29, and vandals destroyed the lands boundary wall on July 5. The constitution reserves seats for non-Muslim members in both the national and provincial assemblies. The resolution stated, This House demands that if the chief of Qadianis [a derogatory term for Ahmadis] submits in writing declaring that they accept the Constitution of Pakistan and accept their status as non-Muslims, then we will have no objection to their inclusion into the Commission..