Pakistan’s Christian rights activists and church leaders pledged to strengthen their efforts to protect persecuted Christians, as they respected the memory of assassinated Christian politician Shahbaz Bhatti.
A passionate advocate for a diverse, multicultural and multi-religious society, Batti was assassinated on March 2, 2011 by Taliban extremists outside their mother’s home in the federal capital, Islamabad.
The Catholic government minister was a critic of the voices for the misuse of the blasphemous Asp law and was known as a defender of religious freedom. He was also committed to creating a 5% position assignment in the government sector for religious minorities.
His efforts led to the release of the first Christian woman sentenced to death for a blasphemous asp crime known as Asia Vivi. Bibi, who was sentenced in 2010 after being accused of humiliating Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, during a discussion with a Muslim woman, now lives with her Canadian family.
Various events took place in major Pakistan cities on March 2nd to pay tribute to Batti’s visionary and courageous leadership. Participants also lit candles, decorated Batty’s portraits, expressing their love for the murdered leader.
Advocate of the Minority Alliance Sparkistan (MAP), Chairman Akmal Bhatti spoke to the ceremony at Faisalabad and vowed to continue the struggle launched by Batti for justice and religious freedom through socio-political activities.
Akumalbatti, who was a follower of Batti and remains part of all Pakistani Minority Alliances (APMAs), led by the late leader, has pledged to make new efforts to ensure the provision of all rights guaranteed by the Pakistan Constitution for religious minorities.
“We follow the leader’s vision of empowering vulnerable and marginalized religious minorities, especially Christians,” Akumal Batti said.
He said the minorities should be given the right to elect their own representatives at legislative meetings so that they can work more effectively for the development and advancement of their communities.
“Today, the situation is like a minority being pushed into the shadows and completely ignored by major national decisions,” Batty said. “There is no minority representative in Pakistan’s recently formed Judicial Committee, and we are also overlooked in the appointment of senior judicial entities. These recent actions are examples of government indifference to our issues.”
He condemned the recent rise in religiously motivated violence and mob attacks in Pakistan, saying he regretted that the government had not stopped the trend of false secretaries’ accusations.
Multiple Christian church buildings and homes in Jalanwara were looted by Muslim mobs after two Christians were accused of blasphemous asp on August 16, 2023. The government has arrested more than 300 suspects, but only one person is in custody, while everything else has been released on bail due to weaknesses in poor police investigations and legal prosecution, rights advocates say.
“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure justice against the victims of Jalanwara to all others suffering from false accusations of blasphemy,” Batti said. “The government should also protect minor girls from Christian and Hindu communities that target adductions, forced faith conversions, and forced marriages.”
Bishop Azad Marshall, the presiding bishop of the Church of Pakistan, called the late minister “a fearless leader and the true son of Pakistan.”
“Shabaz Bhatti has given his life for a country where law, justice, liberty and equality are respected and the principle of living,” Marshall said at a meeting in Lahore in commemoration of the murdered politician.
Senior Church leaders lamented that despite Batty’s ultimate sacrifice for his work against blasphemous law abuse, the goals of minority rights, peace and justice remain elusive.
“Christians continue to face unfair imprisonment based on their faith,” Marshall said. “And further, extrajudicial killings and mob violence continue, supported by allegations of blasphemy. The lack of action by the Pakistani government exacerbates the challenges our people face.”
Marshall called on the government to enforce laws criminalizing perjury and false accusations, protect those accused in the blasphemous ASP, and to enforce laws that unconditionally release religious prisoners of conscience.
Members of Punjab Congress of Ejaz Alam, who served as Punjab’s former Minister of Human Rights and Minority, recalled the initiatives Batti took to develop religious minorities in a statement to the Christian Daily International Morning Star News.
“Bhatti’s achievements include a 5% allocation of minorities in government work, a first minority seat in the Senate, and a 24-hour minority helpline,” Alam said, adding that the late political leaders have launched a network of inter-district harmony committees to encourage dialogue and unite the communities.
Shahbaz Bhatti believes in stopping religious abuse as a divisive force, and by guiding harmony among pagans, he said, he encouraged cooperation between neighbors of various backgrounds and opinions.
“At this point in our history, where intolerance and extremism gradually take over our society, all Pakistanis must speak up to us to counter those who have taken to destroy the tolerance, progressive, liberal and Egalitarian Pakistan vision of Quaid-e-azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the father of the nation’s founder.
Pakistan ranked 8th on the Open Doors 2025 World Watchlist.
