Pakistan (212,300,000) India (200,000,000) Bangladesh . shia surnames in pakistan. Minority rights activists said most government employment advertisements for janitorial staff continued to list being non-Muslim as a requirement. Most minority religious groups said they continued to face discrimination in government hiring. There were reported cases of government intervention and assistance from courts and law enforcement in situations of attempted kidnapping and forced conversion, although enforcement action against alleged perpetrators was rare. Members of religious minorities, particularly lower-caste Hindus, complained of forceful evictions from their homes and villages by individuals desiring their land with assistance from government officials. The economy will contract by 1.3 percent in the 2020 fiscal year because of the pandemic, the World Bank predicts. On July 22, the Punjab Provincial Assembly passed the Protection of Foundation of Islam Bill, which prohibits the printing and publication of objectionable material in the province. They complained that Dalits, who are considered to be the lowest in the traditional Hindu caste structure, were being targeted and subjected to violence and torture in Thar and other areas. Citing a sanitation job advertisement issued by the Sindh provincial government, HRCP stated such advertisements infringed on human dignity and violated the constitutional guarantee of equality of all citizens. Shia Hazaras in Quetta, Balochistan, continued to express concern about targeted killings taking place for the last several years. According to regulations, the only factors affecting admission to government schools are students grades and home provinces, although students must declare their religious affiliation on application forms. 2,724,000. On August 23, the Sindh provincial government barred 142 firebrand speakers and religious scholars from leaving their home districts for 60 days to avoid violent disturbances during Shia Muharram commemorations. 2.4.1 The Shia Muslim population is estimated to be between 20 and 40 million (in . Analysis of census data and demographic research. In October, members of a State Youth Parliament team in Gujranwala defaced a public portrait of the countrys first Nobel laureate, physicist Dr. Abdus Salam, an Ahmadi. The constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and requires all provisions of the law to be consistent with Islam. There were some cases in which police received custody of the accused from a court for 14 days for a senior officer to carry out an investigation. Civil society members reported authorities took no action to prevent attacks on Ahmadi mosques or punish assailants who demolished, damaged, forcibly occupied, or set fire to Ahmadi mosques. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a national NGO, expressed concern over a surge in blasphemy cases against religious minorities, particularly the Shia community, and the continued potential for sectarian violence. The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) designates religious affiliation on passports and requires religious information in national identity card and passport applications. On October 13, according to local media reports, Reeta Kumari, a pregnant Dalit Hindu woman, told the Sindh High Court in Sukkur that she had been abducted by a Muslim man, Rafique Domki, in Islamkot. The rallies came after police charged Shia cleric Taqi Jaffar with blasphemy on August 30 for criticizing two companions of Mohammed during a Karachi Muharram procession. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, Section II. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah Imran Ismail issued a statement condemning the attacks. In August, a case was opened against three Ahmadi men after an official of a religious seminary approached police complaining that the men sacrificed an animal on Eid al-Adha. The HRCP reported that more than 40 such cases were registered under the blasphemy laws in August alone. Salman Khan, the head of the Muslim family, remained at large. Speakers at these rallies warned Shia of dire consequences, including beheadings, if they continued to blaspheme against the Prophet Mohammeds companions. According to Pew Research Center, adherents of Shiite Islam in Pakistan make up between 15-20% of the country's total population. The Ministry of Interior maintained multitier schedules of religiously oriented groups it judged to be extremist or terrorist that were either banned or had their activities monitored and curtailed (Schedule 1) and individuals whose activities in the public sphere could also be curtailed, including during religious holidays such as Ashura (Schedule 4). The Katas Raj Hindu temple was reopened for Hindus after renovation in the Chakwal district of Punjab. Pakistan's Perpetual Shia Shame - Baltimore Post-Examiner Ayaz also spoke at a seminar on interfaith harmony at the cultural center at the National Library of Pakistan in Islamabad. The constitution states, All existing laws shall be brought into conformity with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah [Islams body of traditional social and legal custom and practice]. It further states no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to Islam. Pakistan Population (2023) - Worldometer Bakhtawar Jaffri, a Shia rights activist in Punjab, said she had recently filed a police report for anti-Shia hate speech but it had been ignored. It stated that more than 40 cases against religious minorities were registered under the blasphemy laws in August alone. Prime Minister Imran Khan gave verbal approval to build the temple following a request from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Hindu and Christian members of the National Assembly. Shiites are estimated to be 21-35 percent of the Muslim population in South East Asia. The law bans the sale of Ahmadiyya religious literature. Print and broadcast media outlets continued to publish and broadcast anti-Ahmadi rhetoric. Several minority rights advocacy groups dispute the provisional results of the 2017 census and state the numbers underrepresent their true population and their political influence, because minority seats in the national and provincial parliaments are allocated based on census figures. (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics) However, according to data from the 2017 Census that was made unofficially available to a lawmaker, the Hindu population may have decreased by 0.19% from 1998. Ahmadi representatives said the wording of the declaration students were required to sign on their applications for admission to universities continued to prevent Ahmadis from declaring themselves as Muslims. It is important to remember that Shia have a high birth rate since their religion allows adultery (Mut'a). In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. shia surnames in pakistan On December 24, the PTA issued a legal notice to two Ahmadi U.S. citizens requiring them to remove their website, trueislam.com, or face fines, sanctions, or potential prison sentences. Following petitions, the court reversed its decision and declared the marriage illegal under the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act and ordered the girl placed in a shelter after she refused to return to her parents. According to eyewitnesses, police officials in at least four police vans cordoned off the area and arrested Soomro, who initially resisted. According to government figures, the remaining 4 percent includes Ahmadi Muslims (whom national law does not recognize as Muslim); Hindus; Christians, including Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants, among others; Parsis/Zoroastrians; Bahais; Sikhs; Buddhists; Kalash; and Kihals and Jains. A complainant filed a criminal charge against them on May 3, triggering the police investigation. Three U.S. government cultural centers in Sindh Province and Islamabad held events to promote religious freedom. The situation worsened further last week when an influential Sunni religious scholar, Maulana Dr Adil Khan, was killed in an attack. A media report said four people, including two Shia Muslims, one Ahmadi sect member and a US citizen who renounced the Ahmadi sect, were gunned down in September 2020. 0.5% Shia, and 0.3% Ahmadi. Mr Haider is one of 140 Pakistani Shias to have "disappeared" over the past two years, according to community activists. These 142 individuals included both Shia and Sunni clerics who in the past had given controversial statements leading to sectarian tensions. In May, after the government announced that Ahmadis would be excluded from the National Commission for Minorities, Religious Affairs Minister Qadri said on a popular television show, Anyone supporting Ahmadis is not a Muslim. Ahmadiyya Muslim community representatives stated that the Urdu-language press frequently printed hate speech in news stories and editorials, some of which could be considered as inciting anti-Ahmadi violence. In the provincial assemblies, there are three such reserved seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; eight in Punjab; nine in Sindh; and three in Balochistan. Ahmadi Muslim leaders said they had never been approached about participating in the commission and would never join a body that required them to identify as non-Muslims. Members of this religious group have suffered persecution specifically from Mughal Emperors. Global AIDS Coordinator and Global Health Diplomacy, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Special Representative for Syria Engagement, U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Office of the U.S. These attacks targeted gatherings of Shia individuals. While the Ministry of Law and Justice was officially responsible for ensuring the legal rights of all citizens, in practice, the Ministry for Human Rights continued to assume primary responsibility for the protection of the rights of religious minorities. At years end, she and her alleged husband had not appeared in court in Karachi, despite multiple court orders to do so. 3 - Challenging School Textbooks: The Sectarian Making of National The constitution requires the President and Prime Minister to be Muslims. During his February visit to Karachi, the Department of State Special Adviser for Religious Minorities told students and faculty at Karachi Universitys Department of Islamic Studies, An inclusive society creates more space for trade and prosperity. The audience applauded his comments about the protection of religious freedom for Muslims in the United States. The wafaqs operate through an umbrella group, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan, to represent their interests to the government. In July 2020, Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam (protection of foundation of Islam bill) was passed by the Punjab assembly, which supported only the Sunni interpretation of Islam, provoking a huge . July 2021 . While schools were required to teach Islamic studies and the Quran to Muslim students, sources reported many non-Muslim students were also required to participate because their schools did not offer parallel courses in their own religious beliefs or ethics. The blasphemy charges against Jaffar were followed by anti-Shia rallies throughout the country and at least three rallies in Karachi by Sunni groups on September 11 and 13 attended by thousands of individuals. U.S. government cultural centers in Khairpur, Hyderabad, and Karachi held events to promote religious freedom. On October 6, the Lahore High Court acquitted Sawan Masih, a Christian man sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2014, but Masih continued to face death threats and had to go into hiding with his family. The statement also called on the government to immediately reform its often abused blasphemy laws and its court system, which allow such abuses to occur, and to ensure that the suspect is prosecuted to the full extent of the law., In an official tweet in November following the killing of Ahmadi physician Tahir Ahmad, the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom said the killing was the latest in a series of recent killings targeting the Ahmadiyya community.