By Muhammad Akram

When it comes to rights for religious minorities, Pakistan is the focus of much international controversy, even though Pakistan’s religious minorities constitute just 3.7% of its population of about 205 million. These rights include freedom of religion, economic opportunities, political representations, and socio-identical acceptability of minorities by the Muslim majority and state. 

I have experienced that there is a Muslim voice for the protection of equal citizenship rights for religious minorities, and it is encouraging that at least a few Muslim religious leaders and other groups recognize they need to play an active role in this regard. They are involved in different ways to address the issues of religious minorities in the country.

By Mustafa Akhwand

While freedom of expression was a basis of separation of the territory we now recognize as Pakistan from India, religious intolerance has plagued the nation.  Religious minorities have been targeted and limited in expression.

The real question is, what has caused the growth of hatred and unacceptance in a nation born from the struggle for freedom?

By Lisa Curtis

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made an important gesture toward Pakistan’s religious minorities when he gave a speech March 14, 2017 criticizing Islamist extremist ideology at an event celebrating a Hindu holiday. In his speech, made in Karachi on the festival of Holi, he said, “Pakistan was not made so one religion can dominate over others.…Pakistan’s creation itself was a struggle against religious oppression.”

These are profound statements that deserve repetition and reinforcement, particularly if Pakistan wants to win the battle against terrorism. 

By Minhas Majeed Khan

The creation of Pakistan in 1947 brought hopes not only to Muslims but also to religious minorities. The founding father, Quaid–e–Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, envisioned a state that represents all communities in policy making. For Jinnah the spirit of nationhood [National Identity] was to live in unity, that is, each individual ceasing their faiths whether Hindu, Christian, Sikh or Muslim. Not in a religious sense, because that is their personal faith [Religious Identity], but in a political sense as the citizen of the state [National identity]. Unfortunately, after his death, his predecessors deviated from the ideology he defined.

By Farahnaz Ispahani

Pakistan’s treatment of its religious minorities has attracted global condemnation for years. Aware that the world sees Pakistan as insecure for religious minorities, Pakistan’s leaders are now engaging in symbolic gestures of concern for minorities after years of appealing just to majority sentiment. But positive gestures such as Muslim politicians attending Diwali celebrations alongside Hindus or showing up at Christian Christmas events has done little to abate the wave of extremism that has progressively endangered all of Pakistan’s minorities.