PAKISTAN: The EU should suspend the GSP+. Why? See HRWF March Rights Report
Blasphemy laws, forced conversions, elections and religious minorities, gender equality, kidnapping of Christian girls, protection of places of worship of all faiths, impunity
HRWF (31.03.2026) – For over a decade, Pakistan has been benefiting from a privileged access (reduced or zero duties) to the about 450 million consumers of the EU market. In this framework, Pakistan’s products enter the EU market with 0% duties across approximately 2/3 of all EU tariff lines. From 2014 to 2022, Pakistan’s exports to the EU almost doubled, from 8.3 billion EUR to almost 15 billion EUR.
In exchange, Pakistan pledged to sign and implement 27 international treaties regarding labour rights, good governance and human rights. This EU scheme is known as the GSP+.
Since the inception of this agreement, Pakistan has failed to demonstrate a tangible progress on the implementation of international human rights standards. Quite the contrary, it goes on worsening as this digest of human rights violations perpetrated shows.
It is time for the EU to take sanctions on Pakistan, such as the suspension of its GSP+ status as long as there is no robust progress in the area of human rights. It is in the interest of the EU, the EU taxpayers, the EU enterprises and of course, Pakistani citizens.
The bad deal EU-Pakistan “Trade privileges in exchange of human rights progress”, called the GSP+, should be suspended as long as there is no substantial human rights progress. The EU should vigorously exercise its oversight powers instead of simply remaining in a passive waiting position.
Panorama of religious freedom issues in March
Ahmadis persecuted on Eid across Punjab
APPG for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (31.03.2026) – On the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, Ahmadi Muslim worshippers across multiple districts in Punjab were prevented from offering Eid prayers following coordinated actions by local authorities.
Police entered Ahmadi Muslim mosques, forcibly removed congregants, and shut down mosques, in some cases locking the premises to prevent further use. These measures effectively denied the community the ability to observe one of the most significant religious occasions and constitute a serious restriction on religious practice.
Acting on instructions attributed to the provincial administration, Punjab Police intervened at several locations on the morning of Eid, dispersing worshippers and vacating mosques. Community members reported harassment and coercive measures aimed at preventing congregational prayers.
Documented incidents include:
- the prohibition of Eid prayers in Gujranwala,
- the prevention of Eid prayers at six locations in Sialkot,
- the forced evacuation of an Ahmadi mosque in Faisalabad prior to Eid prayers, and
- the clearing and sealing of multiple Ahmadi mosques in Sargodha.
The enforcement measures form part of a broader pattern of administrative restrictions on Ahmadi.
Pakistan’s Punjab to impart religious education for minority student
UCA News (31.03.2026) – Christian leaders have welcomed the inclusion of religious education for students from religious minority communities in Pakistan’s Punjab province, amid concerns over making it a compulsory curriculum.
In a March 30 notification, the Punjab Education, Curriculum, Training and Assessment Authority (PECTAA) approved religious education textbooks for non-Muslim students, to be introduced from the 2026–2027 academic session onward.
The curriculum includes Masihi Taleem (“Christian teaching or education”) for primary to secondary levels, alongside introductory courses for primary classes in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and the indigenous Kalasha faith.
All 38,000 government schools across the province will recruit teachers for these subjects, Danish George, coordinator for Masihi Taleem at PECTAA, said while adding that the subjects would be compulsory for non-Muslim students.
The move follows a 2023 decision by the National Curriculum Council, which approved the development of textbooks for seven minority faiths — Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Baha’i, Zoroastrianism, Kalasha, and Buddhism.
Under the new framework, religious education replaces the ethics subject previously assigned to non-Muslim students in place of Islamiat (Islamic Studies).
Rights group warns of rise in forced conversions in Pakistan
Advocacy group cites cases involving underage Christian girls and alleges police inaction and systemic failures
UCA News (30.03.2026) – A rights group in Pakistan has expressed serious concern over rising cases of abduction, forced conversion, and marriage of girls from minority groups, including Christians, in the Muslim-majority country.
In a press statement issued on March 27, Human Rights Focus Pakistan highlighted a “troubling pattern of abuse primarily targeting specifically underage Christian girls.”
The rights group said that Pakistan, as a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, is obligated to uphold its provisions, along with the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
The rights group also reiterated concern over the systemic nature of these violations and the frequent lack of timely legal response.
It urged enforcement agencies, judicial authorities, and policymakers “to ensure the prompt registration of FIRs, conduct impartial investigations, and strictly enforce existing laws to safeguard vulnerable communities.”
Hindus form Pakistan’s largest religious minority, accounting for 1.61 percent (3.86 million) of the 240 million population, followed by Christians at 1.37 percent (3.28 million), according to 2023 government data.
Muslims make up 96.35 percent of the country’s total population, while Sikhs, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians account for less than one percent.
Unofficial estimates suggest as many as 1,000 girls from religious minorities are abducted, forcibly converted, and married annually. A majority of these victims are minors, often as young as 10 years old.
Hundreds protest Christian’s custodial death in Pakistan
UCA News (27.03.2026) – A murder case has been registered against police officials, and a probe has been ordered.
More than 300 Christians protested outside a police station in Pakistan’s Punjab province, alleging police tortured and killed a Catholic man in custody, which their leaders said highlights a growing pattern of custodial deaths.
Masih, 42, a gardener at Lahore University, was arrested over allegations of kidnapping a girl from a housing society using a weapon, according to the victim’s brother, Ryasat Masih.
He said a police complaint he filed accused a police official, identified as Mohsin Shah, of demanding 200,000 rupees (US$717.55) to “halt police action” against his brother.
According to Ryasat Masih, Shah later claimed Masih had committed suicide. “My brother was found hanging from a ceiling fan with a scarf. There were torture marks on several parts of his body,” he added.
A report noted that between 15 April and 15 December 2025, HRCP documented at least 670 CCD-led encounters (CCD/ Crime Control Department) in the sole province of Punjab, resulting in the deaths of 924 suspects (based on reports in the press alone). Its data also indicates that only two police personnel were reportedly killed and 36 injured in police encounters in this period.
Pakistan court upholds Christian woman’s marriage to Muslim
UCA News (26.03.2026) – Activists call for changes to civil registration and justice system to halt questionable marriages.
Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court has upheld the legal validity of a controversial marriage between a Christian woman and a Muslim man, in a case where Christian leaders claimed the woman was abducted and forcibly converted.
The marriage between Maria Bibi and a Muslim man identified only as Shehryar is valid under the country’s laws and under Islamic law, said the Islamabad-based court in its March 25 ruling.
Masih claimed his daughter was a minor when she was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married against her will by Shehryar in 2025.
However, the court ruled that neither Islamic nor national laws prevent a Muslim man from marrying a Christian woman, and her conversion to Islam is valid because she voluntarily accepted the Islamic faith.
The court also clarified that although underage marriages are punishable, Pakistani laws do not automatically void them.
Religious minority leaders said the ruling could be exploited to forcibly convert and marry minor girls from other religions.
Christians seek relief from forced evictions in Pakistan’s capital
UCA News (18.03.2026) – Pakistani Christian leaders, including a lawmaker, have sought relief for their community members threatened with eviction from three colonies in the national capital, Islamabad.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) last week ordered evictions of the residents of Rimsha, Allama Iqbal, and Akram Masih Gill slum settlements in Islamabad — home to about 25,000 mostly Christians.
The orders were announced through a megaphone, to which Jeeva objected.
“Our lawyers are also reviewing whether authorities have violated the Supreme Court’s 2015 stay order,” he said, referring to a moratorium imposed by the nation’s top court on summary evictions.
This followed the demolition by the CDA of what was then the capital’s largest informal settlement, leaving more than 20,000 working-class people homeless.
Pakistan: Court challenges the bias that confines minorities to sanitation work
Bitter Winter (18.03.2026) – The Islamabad High Court has condemned religion-based sanitation job ads, but the practice continues despite constitutional protections.
The Islamabad High Court has released the full reasoning behind its 11 November 2025 judgment, which declares that Pakistan’s long-standing practice of advertising sanitation jobs as “for Christians only” is unconstitutional.
The detailed explanation confirms what human rights advocates have claimed for years: associating a specific religious identity with sanitation work violates equality, non-discrimination, and the dignity of citizens.
The Court found this practice inconsistent with Articles 25, 27, and 36 of the Constitution. It emphasized that assigning a religious community to a stigmatized job undermines human worth. Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas described dignity as the “jewel in the crown of fundamental rights,” highlighting the seriousness of this seemingly trivial issue.
Pakistan Christians call for justice for Catholic laborer found hanged
Bitter Winter (14.03.2026) – Marqas Masih’s death in Sargodha was declared a suicide, but it increasingly appears to be a homicide.
The death of 22-year-old Marqas Masih in Sargodha has sparked strong reactions from Catholic Church leaders, both domestically and internationally, human rights advocates, and members of Pakistan’s Christian community.
They are calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances, which seem much more complicated than a suspected suicide. Masih, a young Catholic laborer, was found hanging inside a farm building on March 2. Initially, his family was told he had taken his own life, but when they received the body, they noticed injuries that raised immediate doubts about this claim. Relatives observed bruises, cuts, and other marks that did not match self-inflicted harm. Their concerns deepened as they prepared the body for burial.
The lack of an immediate police response led to a spontaneous protest where more than a hundred Christians blocked a major road into Sargodha while carrying the young man’s body. Only after this demonstration did the authorities order an autopsy. It confirmed multiple injuries alongside signs of hanging. The police later arrested the farm owner and another individual who had been present at the scene.
Three and a half years of silence, fear, and faith: Mishal’s escape from forced detention
Claas (14.03.2026) – Abducted at the age of 18, Mishal spent three and a half years in forced confinement, enduring physical torture, religious coercion, threats, humiliation, and isolation before finally escaping with her baby daughter in her arms.
Born into a poor Christian family, the fourth of four daughters, Mishal never went to school. Poverty forced her into work at a young age. She began working at a beauty parlour. Later on, she found another job at a reputable salon where most employees were Muslim. She was earning a decent salary and helping support her family.
It was there that she met a female client who befriended her and later introduced her — without her consent — to a man named Ali Haider.
One day, under the pretense of a casual meeting, Ali took her to a private house. Inside were a Muslim cleric and two unknown men. Illiterate and frightened, Mishal was pressured to sign documents she could not read and place her thumbprint on papers she did not understand. Only afterward was she informed that she had been converted to Islam and renamed “Fatima.”
In landmark verdict, Pakistan’s high court allows Christian couples to seek divorce on ground of desertion
Christian Daily (10.03.2026) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that Christian couples in Pakistan can seek dissolution of marriage on the ground of desertion if they have lived separately for at least two years, a decision that would significantly ease the divorce process for members of the minority community.
In a landmark judgment issued on March 6, Justice Jawad Hassan set aside earlier rulings by lower courts that had dismissed a Christian man’s petition for judicial separation after he failed to prove allegations of adultery and cruelty against his wife. The high court remanded the case to the trial court with instructions to reconsider it under the provisions of the Christian Divorce Act 1869, including the ground of desertion.
The petitioner, identified as Shahroz, had been entangled in litigation since 2022 after his attempt to obtain judicial separation was rejected by both the trial and appellate courts. The lower courts ruled that he had failed to substantiate claims that his wife, Tareeza, had committed adultery or subjected him to cruelty.
