On October 12, 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew the government of Prime
Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. In May 2000, the Supreme Court validated the
October 1999 coup and established a three-year limit in office for Chief
Executive. Musharraf. In January 2002, Musharraf announced that he was abandoning a separate election system for
religious minorities. In 2002 he also issued a Legal Framework Order that
amended the Constitution. Elections were held in 2002.
The 1973 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (which has been
indefinitely suspended as of the 1999 coup) states that
Islam is the state religion of Pakistan. Article 20 states that every citizen
has the right to practice his or her own religion and that all religious
denominations have the right to establish and maintain religious institutions.
Article 21 says that no one may be forced to receive religious instruction
or participate in religious ceremonies relating to a religion not one’s
own, and that educational institutions which are maintained wholly by a
religious community may teach the faith of that community. Article 31 enjoins
the government to take steps to enable the citizens of Pakistan, individually
and collectively, to live according to the fundamental precepts of Islam.
Article 227 declares that all exiting laws should be brought into conformity
with the “Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and sunnah.”
The president of the country is required to be a Muslim.
Muslims are permitted to convert but that proselytizing among Muslims is prohibited.
A 1974 constitutional amendment declared that Ahmadis, who consider themselves to be Muslim, but do not recognize Mohammed as the last prophet, are not Muslim. In 1984, a law was added to the penal code prohibiting Ahmadis from calling themselves Muslims or using Islamic terminology. Punishment is up to three years imprisonment and a fine. In 1986, another law was passed which declares the death penalty for anyone convicted of blaspheming the prophet Mohammed. This law has been used to threaten Ahmadis, Christians and Muslims.
Numerous fundamentalist Muslim groups have been active in Pakistan and the religious atmosphere has been especially volatile in the wake of the 911 terrorist attacks on New York City. Pakistan has pursued the difficult path of cooperating with allied efforts to topple the Taliban and dislodge Al Quaeda in Afghanistan while at the same time seeking to maintain support domestically. The government has undertaken efforts to curtail the promotion of violence or possession of weapons by Islamic schools. At the same time, religious violence in India directed at Muslims and ethnic conflict in Kashmir have increased tensions between India and Pakistan and intensified national and religious fervor.
While government policy is to promote religious tolerance under Islamic law, Pakistan's blasphemy law remains in effect and attacks by militant Muslim groups against Christians, Ahmadis, and other religious minorities continue to take place.
2003 U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report on Pakistan
The Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief report on Angola
2001 Amnesty International Report on Pakistan
International Christian Concern Report on Pakistan
Pakistan and India slated for religious intolerance Daily News 2/12/04
Search Amazon.com for books on religious freedom in Pakistan