By Hannah Chowdhry and Juliet Chowdhry
Here are our responses to a French Magazine concerned about the treatment of Christians in Pakistan:
Christians are persecuted in Pakistan, like Hindus or Ahmadis… But are they proportionally more persecuted than other communities?
There is no simple answer to this question unfortunately. Figures from the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) recorded that 537 persons were accused under blasphemy laws during 1986-2015, 633 (47%) were Muslims, 494 were Ahmadi (37%), 187 were Christian (14%) and 21 were Hindu (2%). Christians at the time made up 1.6% of Pakistan’s and Ahmadi’s around 0.2%.  The report did not distinguish between Shi’a and Sunni sects of Islam (click here).
It should be noted however that the Ahmadi community have been boycotting the census since  1974, to avoid persecution through identification. The UNHCR estimates that their are 4 Million Ahmadi in Pakistan a figure that would make them a larger minority than Christians (click here). At this point both minorities were facing great tribulation that was disproportionate to their demographic population.  It can also bee seen that over 50% of blasphemy allegations were being laid against minorities.