According to civil society reports, there were many individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges, at least 35 of whom had received death sentences, as compared with 82 individuals imprisoned on blasphemy charges and 29 who received death sentences in 2019. The text messages stated, Sharing of blasphemy, pornography, terrorism, and other unlawful content on social media and the internet is illegal. In Peshawar, security was increased around churches ahead of Christmas after security forces arrested four militants on December 17 who were allegedly planning an attack on Christmas Day, which is also celebrated as Quaid-i-Azam Day, the birthday of Pakistans founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. 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. This is probably an attempt to contain any outbreak of violence, because Shias in Pakistan are a sizeable minority. Civil society and legal sources said judges were generally hesitant to decide blasphemy cases due to fear of violent retribution. The constant tension between Shia and Sunni has led to the creation of Shia-Specific organizations. They said Christians had difficulty finding jobs other than those involving menial labor, with some advertisements for menial jobs specifying they were open only to Christian applicants. Pakistan has the third largest Shia population after India and Iran. And up to 18 million of Pakistan's 74 million jobs may be lost. The victims, burned to death by an angry mob, were Babar Noman and Hafiz Naeem. 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. The Sindh provincial government has legislation allowing couples to seek divorce and granting Hindu women the right to remarry six months after a divorce or a spouses death. Even Fawad Chaudhry, currently serving as the minister for science and technology in Khans government, conceded that sectarianism was an issue that was getting out of hand. On November 9, also in Peshawar, unknown gunmen killed an 82-year-old retired government worker who was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community while he was waiting for a bus. Despite these problems some international organizations have researched and reported some statistics. The FSCs review power applies whether the cases involve Muslims or non-Muslims. The court may suspend or increase the sentence given by a criminal court in these cases. Sunni groups held three large rallies in Karachi in September, with speakers warning Shia Muslims of dire consequences, including beheadings, if they continued to blaspheme against the Prophet Mohammeds companions. The official state religion of Iran is Shia branch of Islam. On August 20, attackers attempted to kill Sheikh Nasir Ahmad, an Ahmadi man from the Lalamusa area of central Punjab. The Sunni majority is using blasphemy laws to target and murder those they call heretics. The division between Sunni and Shi'a is nearly as old as Islam itself, having stemmed from a disagreement in AD 632 about who should succeed . By years end, police had dropped the case due to lack of evidence and pressure from activists. Among the targets of these attacks were Shia Muslims, particularly the predominantly Shia Hazara community. Version 3.0 . Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, Section II. Following the July killing of U.S. citizen and self-identified Ahmadi Muslim Tahir Naseem, who was standing trial for blasphemy charges, some political party leaders celebrated the killers actions. Human rights and religious freedom activists and members of minority religious groups continued to report that they exercised caution and, occasionally, self-censorship when speaking in favor of religious tolerance because of a societal climate of intolerance and fear. February 27, 2023 . Projections 0 100,000,000 200,000,000 300,000,000 400,000,000 Population 235,824,862 On July 31, Hindu business owner and member of the Khairpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries Raja Kishan Chand was killed by unknown gunmen in that city. 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. 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. 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 outside Iran. The constitution states the government shall make Islamic studies compulsory for all Muslim students in state-run schools. 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). Those wishing to be listed as Muslims must swear they believe Mohammed is the final prophet and must denounce the Ahmadiyya movements founder as a false prophet and his followers as non-Muslim. 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 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. After Iran and India, Pakistan has the world's third-largest Shia community, accounting for ten percent of the total population. In modern times, the split has fostered battles for power and resources. All senior officials, including members of parliament, must swear an oath to protect the countrys Islamic identity. The population share of Hindus dropped a little from 22.06 per cent in 1911 to 20.48. On October 7, Dr. Qibla Ayaz, then chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, inaugurated a national code of conduct to promote interreligious harmony in the face of increased sectarian violence and mistreatment of religious minorities. Other government officials, including Prime Minister Khan, advised Sarwar against signing the bill, according to a Lahore-based journalist. The four men were charged with defacing antiquities. On September 30, media reported that a 17-year-old girl from a Hindu Dalit community committed suicide after having been gang-raped a year earlier by Muslim men and subsequently blackmailed by them in Tharparkar, Sindh. In late December, the PTA publicly used this new authority for the first time to demand the removal of sacrilegious content. The womans family said she was pregnant at the time of her suicide and that police initially refused to file charges against the man because of his caste. NEW DELHI: Successive Pakistan governments under the garb of development have undertaken an exercise to change demographic composition of Gilgit Baltistan and local Shia population has been reduced to less than 50 per cent compared to 1948. In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. International and local media, as well as Christian activists, reported that young Christian women, many of them minors, were specifically targeted by Chinese human traffickers because of their poverty and vulnerability. The large-scale presence of these constitution-phobic groups is a clear and present threat to civil and constitutional rule in Pakistan, added Naqvi. The author of the article wrote that COVID-19 had been hidden since the 1960s to be used against Muslims.. This statistic was all taken from many independent sources for the year 1999. The law bans the sale of Ahmadiyya religious literature. According to police, the content they posted on Facebook insulted the companions of Mohammed, which, they said, infuriated Sunni Muslims. The statement also called on the government to reform its blasphemy laws and court system and to ensure that the suspect in Naseems killing be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Religious community representatives estimate religious groups not identifying as Sunni, Shia, or Ahmadi Muslim constitute 3 to 5 percent of the population. Subsequently, Arfana Mallah, a professor at Sindh University Jamshoro who criticized Soomros arrest and the blasphemy laws, was herself accused of committing blasphemy and had to apologize publicly. The law requires elected Muslim officials to swear an oath affirming their belief that Mohammed is the final prophet of Islam. . The requirement that Muslim elected officials swear an oath affirming their belief that Mohammed is the final prophet of Islam continued to discourage Ahmadi Muslims from seeking public office. His was the first acquittal for blasphemy since October 2018, when Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in 2010, was acquitted. The U.S. government estimates the total population at 234.4 million (midyear 2020 estimate). According to the penal code, the punishments for persons convicted of blasphemy include the death penalty for defiling the Prophet Mohammed, life imprisonment for defiling, damaging, or desecrating the Quran, and up to 10 years imprisonment for insulting anothers religious feelings. Speech or action intended to incite religious hatred is punishable by up to seven years imprisonment. 2,724,000. According to some estimates, the Barelvi school of . On April 14, police filed a blasphemy case against Shia singer Zamin Ali in Jamshoro, Sindh. Then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs government had granted the land to build the temple in 2016. Opponents filed a petition to stop construction with the Islamabad High Court on June 29, and vandals destroyed the lands boundary wall on July 5. Answer (1 of 19): The country Iran has the largest population of Shia. In July, religious and right-wing parties criticized the governments plan to permit construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad. Updated: September 04, 2020 06:14 AM GMT. Pakistan's Human Rights Commission reported more than 200 terrorist attacks resulted in nearly 700 Shia deaths and over 1,000 Shia injuries in 2013. the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also reported over 600 Shias were killed for their faith between 1999 and 2003. Sunnis represent approximately 75 percent of this population and Shias 20 . According to the bill, all publishers would be required to submit to the Directorate General Public Relations, the provincial government authority with jurisdiction over printing presses and publishing houses, four copies of every edition of each title they print. In a September editorial, the largest Urdu daily, Nawa-i-Waqt, described the 1974 legislation declaring Ahmadis officially non-Muslim as a historic day in the countrys history. The population density in Pakistan is 287 per Km 2 (742 people per mi 2 ). Hindu Dalits remained vulnerable to human rights violations and pressure by perpetrators to withdraw police cases. Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Other NGOs also said that 2020 had seen an increase in blasphemy cases. Provinces of Pakistan Population Detail Information About Provinces Wise Population 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. Ahmadiyya community representatives reported the word Ahmadi was written on their passports if they identified themselves as such. 03 / Select Countries You can add more than one country or area. The government of Punjab, the countrys largest province, passed a series of measures against Ahmadi Muslim beliefs. 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. Visiting U.S. government officials met with religious minority community representatives, parliamentarians, human rights activists, and members of the federal cabinet to highlight concerns regarding the treatment of religious minority communities, the application of blasphemy laws, and other forms of discrimination on the basis of religion. Twitter and WhatsApp users circulated graphic images and video footage from the courtroom, depicting Naseem slumped over a chair and crowds of men ignoring the body and seeming to congratulate the killer. 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. On October 9, a Hindu teacher was attacked by a Muslim man with an axe on her way to her school in Mithi, Sindh. Government officials condemned the incident, suspended more than 100 police officials for failure to stop the mob, and ordered the temple rebuilt. Although a sizeable. NGOs lobbying for amendments to permit divorce in a wider range of circumstances praised the Ministry of Human Rights efforts to consult with stakeholders and the ministrys overall efforts to accelerate progress on the bill. The Shia population is around 20 per cent of the total population of Pakistan. Getty Images. [see also: Population country ranks ] Nationality: 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. On September 8, Mehwish Hidayat, a Christian woman, was reunited with her family after being abducted by a Muslim man and spending three months in captivity. Minority lawmakers and civil society activists reacted strongly to the attack, stating the boys had been instigated by local Muslim clerics. There are large numbers of Shia's lives in India,Pakistan, Syria, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arab. That same day, a Punjab Provincial Assembly lawmaker from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Mohammed Ilyas Chinyoti, participated in an international Khatm-e-Nabuwat conference in the Chanab Nagar area of Punjab near the Ahmadiyya Muslim communitys headquarters. Victims said their attackers singled them out as vulnerable due to their religious minority identity. In a recent study conducted by the Law and Society Alliance, a New Delhi-based think tank headed by N.C. Bipindra, the population of G-B is now approximately 1.5 million, with around 39 per cent Shia, 27 per cent Sunni, 18 per cent Ismaili and 16 per cent Nurbakhshi. Several historians argue that the Indian Shia elite played a. The six, all from Karachi, were returning from a pilgrimage in Iran; they remained missing at years end. Students who identify themselves as Muslims must declare in writing they believe Mohammed is the final prophet. According to Shia community estimates, There are approximate 320 Million to 350 Millions Shia's lives in the world. The economy will contract by 1.3 percent in the 2020 fiscal year because of the pandemic, the World Bank predicts. Shia Muslims mourning the death anniversary of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in Karachi on 8 October. Major cities - population 16.459 million Karachi, 13.095 million Lahore, 3.542 million Faisalabad, 2.281 million Rawalpindi, 2.290 million Gujranwala, 1.164 million ISLAMABAD (capital) (2021) Salman Khan, the head of the Muslim family, remained at large. Following the address, the Special Adviser convened an interfaith roundtable discussion at Karachi University, which included Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and Parsis. The law prohibits publishing any criticism of Islam or its prophets or insults to others religious beliefs. The teacher survived the attack and told media the man had been following and harassing her for days. Reactions to the PTAs measure was mixed, with many social media users praising the decision to ban TikTok, but others concerned that the government could use this to target religious minorities. These terrorist outfits have committed horrendous crimes in this mountainous region . The complainant said the three men hurt the belief of Muslims by engaging in Islamic rituals as non-Muslims. The court acquitted a second Christian in December. Mr Haider is one of 140 Pakistani Shias to have "disappeared" over the past two years, according to community activists. Both passed the recruitment test and had successful interviews but were denied appointment by the assistant manager. Shia Muslims constitute 10 to 12 percent of the citizen population and an estimated 25 to 30 percent of the Eastern Province's population. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. According to the 2017 census results, the population is 1.6 percent Hindu, 1.6 percent Christian, 0.2 percent Ahmadi Muslim, and 0.3 percent others, to include Bahais, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians.