Inflammatory anti-Ahmadi rhetoric continued to exist on social media and was at times spread by senior members of mainstream political parties. In the absence of specific language in the law authorizing civil or common law marriage, marriage certificates are signed by religious authorities and registered with the local marriage registrar. The main functions of Population Census Wing are as under: 1. 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. The population density in Pakistan is 287 per Km 2 (742 people per mi 2 ). The website further stated extensions could be granted for two years with two reentries per year, excluding from India. You can add more than one country or area. The 104-member Senate has four reserved seats for non-Muslims, one from each province. For example, in March, media reported that a woman from Meghwar committed suicide after being repeatedly raped by a man of an upper-caste Hindu clan in Deeplo, Sindh. On December 15, the Lahore High Court acquitted a second Christian man, Imran Ghafur Masih, who had been sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010. 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. India with 21 million is in second place closely followed by Pakistan (20 million). 2. The law requires clearance from the Muttahida Ulema Board, a Punjab-based advisory council of religious scholars from multiple Muslim schools of thought, to publish content on Islam in school textbooks, which Assembly Speaker Elahi said was necessary to stop the publishing of blasphemous material against Mohammed and his companions. . T he most intriguing aspect of Kashmir is the dynamic between the Shia and Sunni communities in the Valley. On September 7, the JUI-F party held a large Khatm-e-Nabuwat conference in Peshawar, with party leaders and national and provincial parliamentarians in attendance. July 2021 . Throughout the year, Islamic organizations with varying degrees of political affiliation held conferences and rallies to support the doctrine of Khatm-e-Nabuwat. An Ahmadi trader in Peshawar was shot near his business on August 12. Throughout the year, unidentified individuals assaulted and killed Shia and Ahmadis in attacks sources believed to be religiously motivated. The Kuwaiti population consists of 70% foreigners and 30% Kuwaiti. Shias in Pakistan reputedly account for about 20 percent of the population or 42 million out of the population of 210 million making it the second largest Shia population in the world . The ministrys budget covers assistance to indigent minorities, repair of minority places of worship, establishment of minority-run small development projects, celebration of minority religious festivals, and provision of scholarships for religious minority students. Salman Khan, the head of the Muslim family, remained at large. Shia Population Shia by Country (cont.) The Khan government, meanwhile, has been accused of both turning a blind eye to rising sectarianism from hardline Sunni groups, which reportedly enjoy patronage from state and military officials, and also using their support for political gain at a time when the government is weak and the economy is collapsing. Shia Muslims 1.1 Demographics According to sources, the Shia population of Pakistan is estimated to be between 10 and 15 percent (Australia 20 Feb. 2019, para. The girls family said they feared she had been forced to convert and marry a Muslim. The teacher survived the attack and told media the man had been following and harassing her for days. Students who identify themselves as Muslims must declare in writing they believe Mohammed is the final prophet. 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. Minority religious leaders stated members of their communities continued to experience discrimination in admission to colleges and universities. Sunni groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba,. Kuwait (City) The majority of Kuwaiti citizens are Muslim, with an estimated 60-70% Sunni and 30-40% Shia. Observers reported that English-language media continued to cover issues facing religious minorities in an objective manner, but Urdu-language media continued to show bias in reporting on minority religious groups, including multiple instances in which media censored references to Ahmadis on talk shows, used inflammatory language, or made inappropriate references to minorities. Shia Muslims constitute 10 to 12 percent of the citizen population and an estimated 25 to 30 percent of the Eastern Province's population. Page 2 of 41 Preface. According to Ahmadi Muslim civil society organizations, the government failed to restrict advertisements or speeches inciting anti-Ahmadi violence, as provided for in the National Action Plan. Government officials condemned the incident, suspended more than 100 police officials for failure to stop the mob, and ordered the temple rebuilt. Pakistan has the third largest Shia population after India and Iran. 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. Following complaints by some Sunni groups, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority temporarily suspended 24 News from broadcasting, citing Jaffars comments as hate-inciting content.. (Goyal, 2020) There has been an even greater decline in major cities with historically large Hindu populations. The government continued to permit limited non-Muslim foreign missionary activity and to allow missionaries to proselytize as long as they did not preach against Islam and they acknowledged they were not Muslim. Shia population: 17 - 26 million Pakistan participates with a similar percentage of Shia Muslim to its neighbor India, with Shia Muslims making 10 - 15% of all Muslims in Pakistan. Shares of Sikhs and Buddhists in overall population increased marginally. Pakistan's blasphemy laws have come under hefty criticism, as. . NGOs expressed concern about what they stated was the increasing frequency of attempts to kidnap, forcibly convert, and forcibly marry young women from religious minority communities, especially young Hindu and Christian women. 0.5% Shia, and 0.3% Ahmadi. Though Kareem had meant it as a post of religious devotion, it caught the attention of an extremist Sunni Muslim group, who called him a traitor to Muslims. The traffickers told pastors and parents they would arrange marriages to Chinese men who had supposedly converted to Christianity, after which the women were taken to China, abused, and in some cases, sexually trafficked. 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. Ahead of Christmas in Lahore, police deployed some 6,000 officers and officials at 623 churches. At least three top Twitter trends praised the killer and called him the savior and pride of Pakistan. Danesh Kumar, the adviser on minority affairs to the Balochistan Chief Minister, said the government had decided to hand over sacred sites of religious minorities in Balochistan to promote interfaith harmony. The government said Ahmadis could qualify for admission if they did not claim to be Muslims. In August and September, increased security was provided throughout the country for the Shia communitys Muharram processions. On August 12, armed gunmen attacked the house of Ahmadi Muslim Syed Naeem Ahmad Bashir in the Sahiwal District of Punjab, firing into the courtyard at night, where they reportedly expected the family to be sleeping. Updated April 2020 About the Authors. Speakers at that conference repeatedly used anti-Ahmadi rhetoric. The situation worsened further last week when an influential Sunni religious scholar, Maulana Dr Adil Khan, was killed in an attack. Thousands of anti-Shia protesters recently gathered in the city of Karachi, with many openly showing ties to Sunni extremist groups like Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Sipah-e-Sahaba, which has documented links to the killing of hundreds of Shia Muslims over the past few years. Processing and dissemination of data in the form of Census Reports. Two days later, the 21-year-old student found himself the subject of a police report, accused of violating Pakistans draconian laws on blasphemy. Population of males is 106018220 and females is 101344632. Parents may send children to private schools, including religious schools, at the familys expense. According to Shia community estimates, There are approximate 320 Million to 350 Millions Shia's lives in the world. On November 23, the Sindh High Court dissolved the marriage of an underage Christian girl to a 44-year-old Muslim man. Speakers at these rallies warned Shia of dire consequences, including beheadings, if they continued to blaspheme against the Prophet Mohammeds companions. The TLP and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a banned organization under the National Counterterrorism Authoritys Schedule-I list, also held smaller rallies. note: provisional results of Pakistan's 2017 national census estimate the country's total population to be 207,774,000. country comparison to the world (CIA rank, may be based on non-current data): 5. U.S. Government Policy and Engagement. The Charge dAffaires, consuls general, other embassy officers, and visiting senior U.S. officials engaged government officials and senior advisors to the Prime Minister, including the Minister for Human Rights, and officials from the Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, and Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony to discuss blasphemy law reform; laws concerning Ahmadi Muslims; the need to better protect members of religious minority communities; sectarian relations; and religious respect. Ahmadiyya community leaders said he was targeted due to his religious beliefs. 2.4.1 The Shia Muslim population is estimated to be between 20 and 40 million (in . The womans mother filed a police report against the abductor, who was subsequently arrested. This statistic was all taken from many independent sources for the year 1999. Azerbaijan - 65-75% . Sitting by his grave, she tells the story of the day she lost her brother in the attack, a sequence of bomb blasts which killed at least 45 . The constitution prohibits discriminatory admission based on religious affiliation to any governmental educational institution. At first, they used hashtags, then killed us and rallied against us. He fears if he is seen on the streets of Karachi, the Pakistan city he calls home, he will be a dead man walking. The last census was conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2017. Islam is the state religion in Qatar. According to AsiaNews, once Khan learned the family was Christian, he ordered them to leave immediately, because Christians are enemies of Islam. After harassing the family for a few days, Khan gave them a 24-hour ultimatum to leave. In 2020, the provincial government began to implement the act, and NADRA began registering Hindu marriages in Sindh, according to Hindu community activists. On January 29, an antiterrorism court in Lahore acquitted and ordered the release of 42 individuals accused of participating in the 2015 lynching of two Muslim men in Lahore. The four men were charged with defacing antiquities. The wafaqs operate through an umbrella group, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan, to represent their interests to the government. Shias account for 15-20% of the Muslim population in Pakistan. His was the first acquittal for blasphemy since October 2018, when Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in 2010, was acquitted. Human rights activists reported numerous instances of societal violence related to allegations of blasphemy; of efforts by individuals to coerce religious minorities to convert to Islam; and of societal harassment, discrimination, and threats of violence directed at members of religious minority communities. Sources vary on the precise breakdown of the Muslim population between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Department of State programs, including outreach activities such as speakers and workshops, helped to promote peacebuilding among religious and community leaders. The court ordered the chief executive officer of GEPCO to hire the two Christians, but he did not do so. ASWJ had previously been banned in Pakistan under the Anti-Terrorism Act before it was lifted in 2018 but is still globally considered a terrorist organisation. In February, a court in Jacobabad, Sindh, ruled that the marriage with Raza was illegal under the 2013 Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act. The law also would make desecration (including physical destruction of books or symbols, along with verbal, written, or online actions perceived to be insults) of any prophet, any of the four divine books (the Quran, Torah, Psalms of David, and Gospel of Jesus), any family and companions of the Prophet Mohammed, as well as abetting or glorifying terrorists, or promoting sectarianism in any book, punishable with a maximum of a five-year jail term and a substantial fine of up to 500,000 Pakistani rupees ($3,100). In May, the Federal Investigative Agency raided the Lahore home of Ahmadi missionary and youth worker Rohan Ahmad, arresting him on charges of cybercrime, blasphemy against the Quran, and propagating the Ahmadi faith through a WhatsApp group in September 2019. The government continued to implement the National Action Plan against terrorism, including countering sectarian hate speech and extremism as well as conducting military and law enforcement operations against violent groups. On September 5, the HRCP expressed concern over the surge in blasphemy cases against religious minorities, particularly the Shia community, and the potential for sectarian violence. In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. According to data provided by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ), authorities accused at least 199 individuals of new blasphemy offenses during the year. Parliament, church leaders, and advocates continued to debate the text of a draft law to govern Christian marriages nationwide, because the existing regulation dated from 1872. Pakistan is said to have a Shia population of at least 16 million, like India. The text messages stated, Sharing of blasphemy, pornography, terrorism, and other unlawful content on social media and the internet is illegal. The Sindh provincial cabinet adopted regulations to implement the Sindh Hindu Marriage Act in December 2019, which provided more specific rules for implementation. The government announced it would seek a review from the Council on Islamic Ideology and at the end of the year it was unclear whether it still maintained its support for the temple. The government did not permit Ahmadis to teach Islamic studies in public schools. According to the SATP, the number of sectarian attacks by armed groups continued to decrease, corresponding with an overall decline in terrorist attacks. On February 22, a Christian woman from Lahore fled to a shelter after a Muslim factory worker forced her to convert to Islam and marry him. The Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training held consultations with minority faith representatives during the year in a review of textbooks for derogatory material. Other government officials, including Prime Minister Khan, advised Sarwar against signing the bill, according to a Lahore-based journalist. The constitution states no person shall be required to take part in any religious ceremony or attend religious worship relating to a religion other than the persons own. In May, the New York Times reported the issue, which was subsequently raised by international human rights NGOs. There were continued reports that some madrassahs taught violent extremist doctrine, which the government sought to curb through madrassah registration and curriculum reform. 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. Hindu activists in Sindh reported discrimination against the Hindu community during COVID-19 food-relief efforts by private charities. Following Naseems death, there were a series of additional violent incidents targeting Ahmadis, and Ahmadiyya community members said they felt in more danger than ever before. The man was later arrested by police after the Sindh education secretary intervened in the case. The commission also included two Sunni Muslim clerics and senior civil servants from the Ministries of Interior, Law and Justice, Human Rights, Federal Education and Professional Training, Religious Affairs, and the Council of Islamic Ideology. In October, the Lahore High Court acquitted a Christian of blasphemy, the first such ruling since 2018. 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. After Iran and India, Pakistan has the world's third-largest Shia community, accounting for ten percent of the total population. 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. Shiite Muslims protest in Karachi, Pakistan, against a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Shikarpur, Pakistan, on Jan. 30, 2015. Following the killing of U.S. citizen Tahir Naseem in July, JUI-F leader Mufti Kifayatullah celebrated the accused killer for his act of justice. Some political figures, including the ruling PTI Partys Sindh provincial president Haleem Adil Sheikh, who is also a member of the Sindh Provincial Assembly, changed their social media profile pictures to that of Naseems killer. On October 10, 1993, the then Central government had announced elected . The country is home to the second largest Shia population after Iran. In January, after going missing, a 15-year-old Hindu girl appeared in a video with Ali Raza, a Muslim man, in which the two claimed they had willingly married and she had converted to Islam. (July 2020 est.) 1.. The Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act allows local government officials in that province to register marriages between a Sikh man and Sikh woman solemnized by a Sikh Anand Karaj marriage registrar. His ordeal began with a Facebook post in early September, where he condemned the killers of a Shia Muslim martyred centuries ago. Shia leaders, meanwhile, denounced the specific honors prescribed by the bill to Mohammeds companions, which they said risked stoking discord between Shia and Sunnis, given their fundamental disagreements over some of the companions status within Islam. Sunnis are not only dominant but also the majority sect in Pakistan. On November 21, Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari posted a tweet calling for the government to protect all its citizens. Then, in mid-September, a march of more than 30,000 people, organised by extremist Sunni Muslim groups, gathered in Karachi over two days to call Shia Muslims unbelievers and blasphemers and called for their beheading. It is important to remember that Shia have a high birth rate since their religion allows adultery (Mut'a). The NCHR was also mandated to conduct investigations of allegations of human rights abuses, but legal sources said the commission had little power to enforce its requests. According to the nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, the December edition of the Urdu language TTP magazine Journal of The Tehreek-E-Taliban Pakistan blamed the Jews and their puppets for the COVID-19 pandemic and for harassing Muslims during the pandemic. The constitution establishes a Federal Shariat Court (FSC) composed of Muslim judges to examine and decide whether any law or provision is repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. The constitution gives the FSC the power to examine a law of its own accord or at the request of the government or a private citizen.