Church leader suspects Pakistan of under-counting Christians

Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad says Pakistan looks to avoid political benefits to Christians

Updated: July 25, 2024 12:13 PM GMT

Pakistan has under-counted the number of Christians in its new national census to avoid giving them certain benefits in the Muslim-majority nation, says the leader of the country’s bishops’ conference.

Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, said the census shows Christian numbers have grown. However, it still does not reflect the actual numbers.

“The census shows Christians make up 1.37 percent” of Pakistan’s 241 million people, but they “must be around 3 to 4 percent,” he told UCA News on July 23.

The Catholic leader said the actual number of Christians would make them the largest minority in the country, a position now held by Hindus, who make up 1.61 percent of the population.

The bishop explained to UCA News that Christians’ actual numbers “are not recognized to avoid giving us the largest minority title that comes with facilities like ministerial berths” in the government.

The results of the new national census, the first digital population and housing census conducted last year, were released on July 18.

The census data showed that the number of Christians grew to 3.30 million in 2023 from 2.67 million in 2017 when the last census was conducted.

The number of Christians has increased because more people came forward to register this time, said Peter Jacob, executive director of the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice (CSJ), which works among marginalized people. 

A Catholic priest in Karachi, the largest city in the nation, said the country’s orthodox Muslims consider apostasy (renouncing one’s faith) as blasphemy, which can be punished with a death sentence in the country.

“This makes it difficult for new converts to declare their faith,” said the priest, who requested not to be named.

For a third consecutive headcount since 1998, Hindus in Pakistan bagged the largest minority title. They now account for 1.61 percent of the population in the census that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics conducted.

Christian leaders say their numbers are more than Hindus and Sikhs. However, these non-Christian religious minorities enjoy socio-political prominence with ministerial berths and better job and educational opportunities for their young people, they said.

For example, most Pakistani Christians live in Punjab province, earning a living as street sweepers, trash collectors, and farmhands. They are considered outcasts at the bottom of the social ladder.

This is the seventh census conducted after the South Asian nation gained independence from Britain in 1947.