Pakistan’s Misplaced Priorities Highlighted at 60th UNHRC: Persecuting Christians, Sikhs and Religious Minorities While the Economy Burns
Jubilee Campaign, an International NGO working worldwide to protect the freedom of religion, in partnership with the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), convened a high-level side event during the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC60) to spotlight the persistent and grave issue of arbitrary detention on the grounds of freedom of religion or belief. Held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, the event brought together legal experts, human rights defenders, and survivors to expose patterns of religious persecution in Pakistan.
The event featured a distinguished panel moderated by Thibault Van Den Bossche of the European Centre for Law and Justice. Legal experts Sheryar Gill and Rana Abdul Hameed presented detailed documentation of blasphemy-related detentions in Pakistan, while Minority Rights Activist Joseph Janssen of Jubilee Campaign Netherlands called for the abolition of laws that criminalize peaceful religious expression.
The event was attended by Member of the European Parliament Charlie Weimers, who delivered a compelling statement calling on governments of China, Eritrea and Pakistan to protect their religious minorities in line with international conventions.
Pakistan is sinking into a dangerous obsession with blasphemy at the expense of its own stability. As the country grapples with economic turmoil, its authorities and masses remain fixated on hunting down alleged “blasphemers,” primarily from Christian and Sikh minorities. In April 2025, for example, a court handed a death sentence to a 36-year-old Christian man in Jaranwala over claims he desecrated the Quran – the same false allegation that had provoked a mob to torch hundreds of Christian homes and churches in his town in 2023. On the very same day, a frenzied crowd in Karachi beat another religious minority man to death with bricks. These recent incidents underscore how Pakistan’s priorities have been gravely misplaced, with religio‐extremist fervor trumping urgent issues like economic rescue and minority safety.
This destructive trend has escalated dramatically in the past three years, coinciding with a change in Pakistan’s military leadership. Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, who took charge as army chief in late 2022, is a known religious conservative, and under his watch, persecution of religious minorities has intensified in Pakistan. The number of blasphemy cases exploded under this environment: while only 9 blasphemy cases were recorded in 2021, at least 475 cases were registered in 2024. This sharp rise is no accident. It reflects an atmosphere where militant clerics and lynch mobs operate with impunity and even institutional backing. Extremists dictate terms to the government, and Pakistan’s rulers appear more interested in placating these forces than in upholding justice or economic sanity.
For Pakistan’s Christian community, the consequences have been horrifying. The Jaranwala pogrom of August 2023 stands as a chilling example: an incensed mob, whipped up by announcements from mosques, ravaged at least 20 churches and over 80 Christian homes after two local Christians were (falsely) accused of blasphemy. However, no action was taken to punish the perpetrators. As a senior Church leader in Pakistan bitterly observed, this “judicial apartheid” only emboldens aggressors. In June 2025, a 22-year-old Christian man, Ehsan Shan, was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Punjab after being accused of posting images of defaced Quran pages on social media. The verdict sparked protests in Karachi, with demonstrators decrying the “misuse of blasphemy laws.”
Pakistani authorities rarely prosecute the leaders of these mobs or the clerics who incite violence over loudspeakers. Instead, police often swiftly register First Information Reports (FIRs) for blasphemy against the accused individual, while treating the blatant mob incitement as a secondary issue. In one telling episode in early 2025, a judge of the Islamabad High Court tried to turn the tide by ordering an investigation into the misuse of blasphemy laws, after a confidential police inquiry (“The Blasphemy Business”) uncovered organized gangs framing innocent people on social media to extort money. But hardline Islamist groups like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) erupted in outrage and threatened unrest, prompting the court to suspend the inquiry for fear of violent backlash. This episode lays bare the reality: even the Pakistani judiciary and government retreat the instant extremist mobs push back, reinforcing a vicious status quo.
Pakistan’s Sikh minority, though much smaller in number, is experiencing a similarly dire predicament. In recent years, Sikhs have been targeted by extremists in what feels like an outright campaign to extinguish their presence. Since 2013, around 30 Sikh community leaders, activists, and traders have been assassinated by Islamist extremists in Pakistan. Living under such constant threat, Sikh families are fleeing Pakistan in large numbers. In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has historically been home to a sizable Sikh community, an estimated 70% of Sikh residents have left over the past decade. Many have abandoned their ancestral homes and Gurudwaras, seeking refuge in India or other countries, leaving behind dwindling gurdwaras and shuttered businesses. This exodus of Sikhs is an ominous bellwether for Pakistan – a sign that even communities that predate Pakistan’s creation are now being driven out by unchecked bigotry and violence.
Adding insult to injury, Pakistan has allowed the cultural and religious heritage of minorities to decay as well. Nowhere is this more visible than in the condition of Sikh gurdwaras (temples) across the country. Outside of a handful of major sites kept for international optics (such as the Kartarpur shrine), many historic gurdwaras are in a state of terrible disrepair. A striking example emerged in July 2023, when the front wall and gate of a centuries-old gurdwara in Punjab’s Kasur district collapsed after heavy rains, having weakened due to years of official neglect. Locals reported that the government’s Evacuee Trust Property Board, responsible for minority properties, had ignored the site’s maintenance for so long that the gurdwara’s courtyards had literally turned into a barn. Such blatant neglect sends a clear message to Sikhs: their holy places do not matter in Pakistan’s scheme of things.
All evidence thus points to a bleak and worsening future for Pakistan’s minorities. The state’s obsession with blasphemy, fueled by hardline clerics and acquiesced to by political and military leaders, has pushed the country’s Christians and Sikhs into a corner. They endure daily the prospect of mob violence, trumped-up charges, and institutional discrimination, wondering if tomorrow will bring a false accusation or another lynching at their doorstep. All this is unfolding while Pakistan’s economy is in freefall. The country has been grappling with one of its worst financial crises, with GDP growth predictions of around 2% in 2025. Inflation remains at two figures, after reaching a maximum of 40% in mid-2023. Millions are sinking into poverty, and the government has scrambled for IMF bailouts to stave off default. Pakistan is edging toward de facto religious apartheid: a society cleansed of diversity, patrolled by blasphemy vigilantes, and governed by intimidation rather than the rule of law. As a result, the coming years look dark for Pakistani Christians and Sikhs, and the international community should take note of it and penalize Pakistan for its extremist practices.
At the 60th session of the UNHRC international NGOs and civil society organisations have made their voices heard. Now it is upto the Commission to take concrete and visible actions that restore the faith of Pakistan’s minorities who continue to face persecution.