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Christianity is the third largest religion in Pakistan. According to the 2017 Census, the proportion of Christians in Pakistan was estimated as about 1.27% of the population. Of these, approximately half are Catholic and half Protestant. A small number of Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Oriental Orthodox Christians also live in Pakistan.
The situation of Human Rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law. The Constitution of Pakistan provides for fundamental rights. The Clauses also provide for an independent Supreme Court, separation of executive and judiciary, an independent judiciary, independent Human Rights commission and freedom of movement within the country and abroad. However these clauses are not respected in practice.
The Pakistan Penal Code, the main criminal code of Pakistan, penalizes blasphemy against any recognized religion, providing penalties ranging from a fine to death. According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, around 80 people are known to be incarcerated in Pakistan on blasphemy charges — half of those face life in prison or the death penalty. From 1967 to 2014, over 1,300 people were accused of blasphemy, with Muslims constituting most of those accused. According to human rights groups, blasphemy laws in Pakistan have been exploited not only for persecuting minorities but also for settling personal rivalries, often against other Muslims. Though no judicial execution has been carried out under these laws, many of those accused, their lawyers and any persons speaking against blasphemy laws and proceedings have become victims of lynchings or street vigilantism in Pakistan. More than 75 people were murdered for blasphemy between 1987 and 2017.
The Archdiocese of Karachi is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in India. It was erected on 20 May 1948 under as a then-suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Bombay.
The Christ the King Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Karachi, Pakistan; located in adjacent to the Portiuncula Friary. In its early years most of the faculty were provided by the Franciscans. It has been described as "the pioneering theological institution for the Catholic Church in Pakistan."
Lawrence John Saldanha is a retired archbishop from Pakistan. He was born in Mangalore, India. He received his religious training at the Christ the King seminary in Karachi and was ordained a priest in Lahore, Pakistan on 16 January 1960.
Joseph Coutts is a Pakistani prelate of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Karachi from 2012 to 2021. He served as Bishop of Faisalabad from 1998 to 2012.
Andrew Francis was the Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop of Diocese of Multan from 2000 to 2014.
John Joseph was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad from 1984–1998 and is best known for committing suicide to protest the cruel treatment of Christians in Pakistan.
Joseph Leonard John Paul was a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi in Pakistan.
St Paul’s Parish, Mehmoodabad Gate is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi. The parish is also home to a Catholic school and a home for young orphan girls run by the religious order of the Daughters of the Cross.
The Idara-e-Aman-o Insaf was set up in 1974 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi and the Church of Pakistan in Karachi. The organisation served the people irrespective of tribe, clan, colour or creed.
Catholic (National) Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) was formed in 1985 by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan. It provides services in the field of human rights advocacy.
The Franciscan Portiuncula Friary is the oldest friary in Pakistan, founded in 1940. It is located in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, adjacent to the Christ the King Seminary. It is the Pakistani base of the Order of Friars Minor, a mendicant Catholic religious order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209.
Augustine Soares was a Roman Catholic priest in Karachi, Pakistan. He was born in Karachi and received his religious training at the Christ the King seminary. He was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi in 1969.
In 2010, a Pakistani Christian woman, Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi or Aasia Bibi, was convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court and was sentenced to death by hanging. In October 2018, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted her based on insufficient evidence, though she was not allowed to leave Pakistan until the verdict was reviewed. She was held under armed guard and was not able to leave the country until 7 May 2019; she arrived in Canada the next day.
Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, popularly known as Shahbaz Bhatti, was a Pakistani politician who was elected as a member of the National Assembly from 2008. He was the first Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs from November 2008 until his assassination on 2 March 2011 in Islamabad and the only Christian in the Cabinet. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for his killing and called him a blasphemer of Muhammad. In March 2016, five years after the death of Shahbaz Bhatti, his cause for beatification was formally opened by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, making him a Servant of God within the Roman Catholic Church.
Liberius Pieterse was a Franciscan priest working initially in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi in colonial India and Pakistan, respectively.
Joseph Arshad is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
Benny Mario Travas is a Pakistani prelate of the Catholic Church and Archbishop of Karachi, Pakistan. He served as Bishop of Multan from 2015-2021.
References
- ↑ "Priest among 16 arrested in interreligious protest against blasphemy laws". UCANews.com. 12 January 2001. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- ↑ "Pakistanis Celebrate Priest's Service To Marginalized People". Archived from the original on 2 April 2018. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
- ↑ "Pakistan Christians Acquitted of Blasphemy".
- ↑ "Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Vigil Mass". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
- ↑ Melbourne Catholic Retrieved 22 February 2021
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