Pakistan enacts law to ensure religious minorities’ rights
The commission, which the law envisages, aims to ensure that religious minorities enjoy human rights in all spheres
Updated: May 15, 2025 02:07 AM GMT
The Pakistan parliament on May 13 disregarded opposition members’ resistance and passed a law to establish a commission to protect the rights of religious minorities in this Islamic nation.
National Commission for Minority Rights Bill 2025, in its introduction, said that Pakistan “is bound to promote respect of religious diversity and create favourable conditions” for all.
The bill aims to ensure that religious minorities are “enabled to freely practice, express and develop their own culture as it is guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973,” it said.
The bill’s passage “is a significant and historical moment for Pakistan’s polity and society,” said Peter Jacob, a Catholic human rights activist in the country.
“The law provides a strong basis for creating an empowered and autonomous human rights body,” said Jacob, who heads the Lahore-based rights group, Centre for Social Justice.
Jacob, who campaigned for such an independent rights commission amid anti-Christian violence in the country, said the law brings “the huge democratic potential for the inclusion of religious minorities into the policy-making in the country.”
The commission aims to ensure that religious minorities enjoy human rights in all spheres, including the religious, economic, social, and cultural spheres, as outlined in the national constitution and international covenants and declarations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Besides, it also provides “an opportunity for correcting exclusionary societal trends that have been plaguing our system,” Jacob said.
The law grants the commission the authority to summon witnesses, inspect detention facilities, and initiate suo motu inquiries, enabling it to issue binding recommendations to both federal and provincial authorities.
Additionally, it is mandated to have its own budget for operations without requiring prior approval from the government. It should report its audited annual report only to the parliament.
Reverend Shehzad Gill, a senior pastor from the Protestant Church of Pakistan, expressed concern that the commission “could be too bureaucratic.”
The law stipulates that the commission be led by a chairperson from a religious minority community and will include fourteen representatives from various regions, at least 33 percent of them women.
An ex-officio member from the National Commission for Human Rights will also be part of the commission, all of whom will be appointed by the Prime Minister through “a transparent nomination process,” according to the law.
“The true test of the commission’s effectiveness lies in its ability to function independently and impartially,” said Gill, who also works as a development adviser in the Diocese of Raiwind.
Ataurehman Saman, deputy director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Pakistan, said previously that they had a name-sake rights commission under the religious ministry, and “the state had been falsely claiming to have a commission for minorities at international forums since 1995.”
In 2020, the then-government established an ad hoc commission for minorities, but it was rejected by minority communities as toothless.
In June 2024, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, suo motu, requested the government to establish a statutory body to safeguard the rights of religious minorities as guaranteed by the country’s constitution and legal system.
With that, Christian groups and rights activists joined others to press for an independent body that can function effectively. The decade-long campaign resulted in the drafting of the National Commission for Minority Rights Bill 2025.
On April 23, 2025, the Prime Minister relocated the existing commission from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the Ministry of Human Rights, signaling a shift toward rights-based enforcement.
Christian leaders acknowledge that while they view the new independent commission as a step forward, it may ultimately fail if it fails to exercise its authority and becomes a tool of its political masters.
“This [the new commission] is not the end of the road — it’s the beginning of a long journey towards justice and equality for religious minorities in Pakistan,” said Jacob.
