Pakistani Christians Rally for Equal Rights

Uzay Bulut : Aug 17, 2026
PJ Media

They called for constitutional equality and religious freedom, urging the government to move beyond ceremonial celebrations to address long-standing discrimination.

[PJMedia.com] August 11 was declared in Pakistan the official "National Minorities Day" in 2009 in response to a campaign led by Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's first Catholic federal minister for minorities and a prominent advocate for religious freedom. (Screengrab image: via Instagram-eTribune) 

The date commemorates Muhammad Ali Jinnah's historic address to Pakistan's Constituent Assembly on Aug. 11, 1947, in which the country's founder declared that citizens were free to practice their religion and that faith should have no bearing on equal citizenship.

Bhatti was assassinated in Islamabad on March 2, 2011, for his vocal opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Those laws carry the death penalty for insulting Islam or Mohammed. 

Two assassins sprayed the Christian minister's car with gunfire, striking him at least eight times, before scattering pamphlets that described him as a "Christian infidel." The leaflets were signed "Taliban al-Qaida Punjab."

Bhatti's death followed the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer just two months prior, who had also criticized the blasphemy laws.

Fifteen years after Bhatti's assassination, Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and other minority communities continue to report discrimination, attacks on places of worship, abductions, forced conversions and marriages of underage girls, and misuse of the country's blasphemy laws. All of these abuses stand in contradiction of Pakistan's constitutional guarantees of equal citizenship.

One of the thousands of victims is Aneeqa Ishaq, a 16-year-old Christian girl in Lahore, who was abducted by a Muslim man who then forced her to convert to Islam and coerced their marriage. After her recovery from captivity in July of this year, she filed a petition in a Lahore family court seeking to have the marriage declared void. Aneeqa's family have since moved away from their rented home and even changed their phone numbers, fearful of being traced.

On August 11, 2026, marking Pakistan's National Minorities Day, Christians and members of other religious minority communities as well as civil society activists gathered in three major Pakistani cities for the annual Minority Rights March. 

They called for constitutional equality and religious freedom, urging the government to move beyond ceremonial celebrations to address long-standing discrimination... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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