This week, a bipartisan US government agency overseeing religious freedom around the world recommended impose sanctions against Pakistan on human rights abuses, particularly for abuse of harsh blasphemous laws and treating religious minorities within the country.
The US International Religious Freedom Committee (USCIRF) said Pakistan’s religious freedom continued to deteriorate in 2024, according to its annual report released on Tuesday (March 25).
Religious minority communities, especially Christians, Hindus and Shia Muslims, Ahmadis, have continued to bear the brunt of persecution and prosecution under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy law, suffered violence from both the police and the mob, and those responsible for such violence rarely faced legal consequences.
“Such conditions continued to contribute to a growing religious and political climate of fear, intolerance and violence,” the USCIRF said, noting that accusations of blasphemy and mob violence continued to have a serious impact on religious minority communities across the country.
He also said that “violent attacks and systemic harassment” against Ahmadi’s community continued throughout the year, resulting in four deaths.
Another issue highlighted in the report was the “deteriorating pattern of forced conversion” between the country’s Christian and Hindu women and girls.
The USCIRF recommended the US administration to “impose target sanctions on Pakistani officials and government agencies responsible for strict violations of religious freedom” by freezing assets and/or banning entry into the US under human rights-related financial and visa authorities.
The panel recommended that Pakistan should be redesignated as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) to engage in “systematic, continuous and terrible violations” as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) (CPC).
Additionally, the United States will enter into a binding agreement with Pakistan under section 405(c) of the IRFA to encourage substantive measures to address violations of freedom of religion or belief. It will repeal the profanity and anti-Ahmadi laws, and until such a repeal, it will require evidence from the accuser, carry out appropriate investigations by police officers, and allow authorities to dismiss the unfounded accusations until reforms are enacted to make them a profanity crime. It enforces existing criminal law articles, and retains accountable individuals who incite or participate in perjury and false accusations, and incite or participate in vigilante violence, targeted killings, forced conversions, and other religious crimes.
Pakistan was last designated as a CPC in January 2024.
Blasphemy is an inflammatory charge for many in Pakistan, and the baseless accusations incite public rage that could lead to lynching. In May, Christian Nazeer Masih Gill passed away shortly afterwards after being accused of burning pages of the Qur’an. In August 2023, Muslim mob attacked the Christian area of Jalanwara in Faisalabad district, burning multiple churches and homes after two brothers were mistakenly accused of writing blasphemous content and secing the Quran.
Pakistan has also seen a sharp rise in prosecutions for “online blasphemous ASP” cases over the past two years, with private vigilante groups making accusations against hundreds of young individuals, including Christians allegedly committed a blasphemous ASP.
Expressing vigilance against the increase in false blasphemous ASP accusations in Pakistan, the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) on November 7th urged the abolition or amendment of the country’s widely condemned blasphemous laws.
The committee noted that false blasphemous accusations lead to violence among Muslim mobs and recommend that the law be amended in accordance with the requirements of the International Contract Requirements for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In his observation of the conclusions of the Commission’s second regular report on Pakistan, he said that concerns about sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code carry serious penalties, including the death penalty, and have a disproportionate impact on religious minorities.
“I am also concerned about the increased number of people who have been imprisoned for blasphemy, the number of cases of blasphemy based on false accusations, violence against those accused of blasphemy, cultivating vigilantes justice, particularly the allegations of locking up young people, and the Committee’s Commission’s Commission on accusations of blasphemy.
In related developments, two US lawmakers reportedly introduced a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives on Monday (March 24) for allegedly human rights abuses and “a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives calling for sanctions against Pakistani state officials over the persecution of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The bill, entitled Pakistan Democracy Act, was introduced by Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina and Democrat Jimmy Panetta of California. It has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Judicial Committee for review.
The proposed law requires that the country impose sanctions on Pakistan’s army chiefs within 180 days if it is unable to take steps to improve the human rights situation.
The bill aims to invoke the US Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the United States to refuse visas and entry to individuals accused of committing human rights abuses. It also directs the US government to identify and sanction individuals allegedly involved in suppressing Pakistan’s political opposition.
If Pakistan ends military interference in civilian rule and releases all “mistaken political detainees”, the president is given the power to lift sanctions.
Pakistan ranked 8th on the 2025 World Watchlist, where it’s the hardest place to become a Christian.
