Islamabad, March 16 (IANS) The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has urged the US government to redesignate Pakistan as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’, or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
In its annual report, the USCIRF – a US government advisory body separate from the State Department, that monitors and reports on religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the US President, the Secretary of State, and Congress – highlighted that religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued along a troubling trajectory in 2025.
“The government continued to enforce its strict blasphemy law, impacting people of all faiths, including religious minorities. Increasing vigilante attacks and mob violence targeting religious minorities, specifically Ahmadiyya Muslims and Christians, contributed to an intensified climate of fear and intolerance,” the report detailed.
It mentioned that the Pakistani authorities continued to wield the blasphemy law and its death penalty provision to punish those deemed to have insulted Islam.
In January (2025), four individuals were sentenced to death for allegedly posting blasphemous content on social media. The same month, a mentally ill Christian man, Farhan Masih, was imprisoned on blasphemy and terrorism charges. Despite being acquitted, Masih could not return to his village out of fear for his safety. In February, a sessions court sentenced another man to death after a member of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) accused him of ‘insulting religious sentiment’. The following month, the Lahore High Court removed from its case list Junaid Hafeez’s appeal hearing related to charges of blasphemy. Authorities have held Hafeez in solitary confinement since 2014, and a sessions court sentenced him to death in 2019. His trial has been pending since 2020,” the report added.
Last year, Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology strongly opposed the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill unanimously passed by the country’s National Assembly to curb child marriages and, by extension, forced conversions of underage girls.
Under the legislation, those who facilitate or coerce a child into marriage, including family members or clerics, can face up to seven years’ imprisonment.
According to the USCIRF report, the bill was declared “un-Islamic for not conforming with Islamic injunctions. Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman called for rallies protesting the law. Leaders of the
Mili Yakjethi Council (MYC) similarly condemned the bill, calling it un-Islamic and unconstitutional.
Similarly, the report mentioned that violent attacks against religious minorities occurred with impunity and in some cases under accusations of forced conversions.
“In March (2025), a Muslim man attacked his coworker Waqas Masih, a 22-year-old Christian man, by slitting his throat, accusing him of committing blasphemy by touching an Islamic textbook with ‘unclean hands’. Days later, a Muslim man shot and killed a Hindu man, Nadeem Naath, after he allegedly refused to convert to Islam. In September, two gunmen attacked Christian pastor Kamran Naz as he traveled to Islamabad to lead a church service. The pastor previously received death threats and was accused of ‘proselytizing among Afghan refugees’. Reports of forced conversions among Hindu and Christian girls in Punjab and Sindh Provinces continued throughout 2025,” the annual USCIRF report detailed.
It mentioned further that throughout 2025, the Pakistani government continued its efforts to forcibly expel thousands of Afghan refugees, including religious minorities, back to Afghanistan. This included Hazara Shi’as, whom the Taliban persecute and view as apostates.
The US Department of State last redesignated Pakistan as a CPC under IRFA for particularly severe violations of religious freedom on December 29, 2023.
“Any presidential action taken as a result of this designation terminates by the end of 2025 unless expressly reauthorized by law,” the annual report highlighted.
The USCIRF has recommended as many as 13 countries – including Pakistan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – to be redesignated as ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ (CPCs).
–IANS
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