Pakistan’s Christians call for protection, more rights amid Christmas celebrations in capital

Pakistani Christian community gathers to pray on the occasion of Christmas, at the Our Lady of Fatima Church in Islamabad on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 25 December 2024
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Pakistan’s Christians call for protection, more rights amid Christmas celebrations in capital

  • Christianity is the third-largest religion in Pakistan with the 2023 census recording over three million Christians
  • Christians face institutionalized discrimination in Pakistan, including being targeted with blasphemy accusations

ISLAMABAD: Church leaders and Christian residents of Islamabad on Wednesday called on the Pakistan government to improve the condition of religious minorities as Christmas was celebrated in the federal capital and around the country with prayer services, parties and feasts.
One of the main services in Islamabad was held at the Our Lady of Fatima Church, which was decorated with Christmas ornaments, and had on display a nativity scene, a depiction of the birth of Jesus, often exhibited during the Christmas season around the world. Festivities at the church included a prayer service late on Christmas eve and services in the morning and during the day.
“We want the government to solve the problems of Christians,” Sylvester Joseph, the parish priest at Fatima Church, told Arab News after the morning prayer service. “We are a minority. We have problems with jobs, we have problems with discrimination. We want this to be solved.”
Christianity is the third-largest religion in Pakistan, with results from the 2023 census recording over three million Christians, or 1.3% of the total population in Pakistan. The majority of Christians in Pakistan are members of the Catholic Church or the Church of Pakistan.
Christians face institutionalized discrimination in nearly all walks of life in Pakistan and are often the target of violence by religious hard-liners and militant groups. Christians are also reserved for low-status jobs, such as working in sewers or as cleaners in homes and offices. 




Pakistani Christian community gathers to pray on the occasion of Christmas, at the Our Lady of Fatima Church in Islamabad on December 25, 2024. (AFP)

Historical churches in Pakistan are monitored and have been targeted with bomb attacks on multiple occasions.
“There are many challenges here,” Sarfaraz John, a church elder, told Arab News. “We have only one job which is cleaning. We don’t get jobs according to our education.”
He said the community was also “scared” of violence and mob attacks, referring to an incident in August 2023 when vigilantes attacked the Christian community in the city of Jaranwala after falsely accusing two Christian residents of desecrating the Qur’an. 
“We are afraid of what will happen. Our communities are afraid of what will happen,” John added. “There have been incidents like Jaranwala. We are scared.”
In May this year, at least 10 members of a minority Christian community were rescued by police after a Muslim crowd attacked their settlement over a blasphemy accusation in eastern Pakistan. 
In 2017, two suicide bombers stormed a packed church in southwestern Pakistan just days before Christmas, killing at least nine people and wounding up to 56. An Easter Day attack in a public park in 2016 killed more than 70 people in the eastern city of Lahore. In 2015, suicide attacks on two churches in Lahore killed at least 16 people, while a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a 130-year-old Anglican church in the northwestern city of Peshawar after Sunday Mass in 2013, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country.
Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights, Azam Nazeer Tarar, announced this month Pakistan would “soon” establish the National Commission for the Rights of Minorities, who constitute about three percent of Pakistan’s estimated population of 240 million people. In October, the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, announced cash cards for minorities in the province, where the most number of the country’s Christians live, and vowed to double the amount for uplifting their places of worship and graveyards.




Pakistani Christian community gathers to pray on the occasion of Christmas, at the Our Lady of Fatima Church in Islamabad on December 25, 2024. (AFP)

Some Christians at the Islamabad service also said things had improved for the community in recent years. 
“We celebrate Christmas at the government level, it is much better now,” Joseph, the pastor-in-charge, said. “Our Muslim brothers meet us and wish us ‘Merry Christmas’. The situation is improving now.”
John said security arrangements by the government had also improved in recent years. 
“The government gives us security. They work with us,” he said. “There are more than 50 troops on duty at the church today. Traffic police, [paramilitary] Rangers, Islamabad police, they all work with us on Christmas.”
Naveed Arif, a banker, said the situation of minorities had “improved a lot with time.”
“Now minorities are given their rights in a proper way, I am a banker myself,” he said. “In festivals like Christmas and Easter, we are given special holidays. We are given proper provisions at other events as well … there have been a lot of changes and improvements.”


Pakistan PM directs task force to propose budget plan for low-cost housing

Updated 5 sec ago
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Pakistan PM directs task force to propose budget plan for low-cost housing

  • Pakistan faces a housing crisis, with the shortage particularly acute in urban areas
  • PM says ahead of the budget low-cost housing is his administration’s top priority

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday his administration is prioritizing the development of low-cost housing while directing a task force to present financing recommendations to include the facility in the upcoming budget.

Pakistan has been facing a housing crisis, with the World Bank suggesting two years ago it was short of an estimated 10 million housing units. The shortage is particularly acute in urban areas due to rapid population growth, unregulated expansion and high land and construction prices.

The federal budget, which will be presented to the National Assembly next month, is expected to outline measures to tackle the crisis as the new fiscal year begins in July.

“The government’s foremost priority is to facilitate access to housing through low-cost schemes,” Sharif said during a task force meeting to address the issue.

“Such projects will not only make residential units accessible to the common man but also stimulate economic growth and create employment opportunities,” he continued.

The prime minister instructed the task force to work with the finance ministry and banks to prepare detailed financing proposals for affordable housing, with the aim of making them part of the upcoming budget.

He also emphasized that developing the construction sector was key to sustainable economic growth.

Officials briefed the prime minister on ongoing reforms to the Condominium Act 2025 and Foreclosure Law, saying they were in their final stages and were expected to ease access to housing loans under the new schemes.


Pakistan says India using ‘terrorism’ as foreign policy tool after school bus attack in Balochistan

Updated 41 min 51 sec ago
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Pakistan says India using ‘terrorism’ as foreign policy tool after school bus attack in Balochistan

  • New Delhi rejects Pakistan’s allegation, calls it an attempt to deflect responsibility for internal failures
  • PM Sharif visits Balochistan after school bus bombing kills three children, leaves eight critically wounded

KARACHI: Pakistan urged the international community on Wednesday to condemn what it called India’s use of “terrorism” as a foreign policy tool, after a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeted a school bus in the southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least three children and injuring 39 others, including eight critically.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and rich in mineral resources, has long faced an insurgency led by separatist groups who accuse Islamabad of exploiting local resources while neglecting the population. The government denies the claims, citing investments in health, education and infrastructure.

In recent months, the insurgency has intensified, with groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) carrying out high-casualty attacks on civilians and security forces, including taking hostages at a passenger train. Pakistan says it has evidence linking India to these attacks, though New Delhi has denied involvement and distanced itself from the Khuzdar school bombing.

However, Islamabad described the attack as a “sequel” to India’s missile and drone strikes earlier this month, accusing New Delhi of deploying militant proxies to destabilize the country, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir visited the region to meet injured children in hospital.

“These terrorist groups — masquerading under ethnic pretenses — are not only being exploited by India as instruments of state policy, but also stand as a stain on the honor and values of the Baloch and Pashtun people, who have long rejected violence and extremism,” said a statement issued by the PM Office after Sharif’s visit to Quetta.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir being briefed on the Khuzdar school bus attack, in Quetta on May 21, 2025. (Photo courtesy: Handout/PMO)

“India’s reliance on such morally indefensible tactics, particularly the deliberate targeting of children, demands urgent attention from the international community,” it added. “The use of terrorism as a tool of foreign policy must be unequivocally condemned and confronted.”

The prime minister and the accompanying delegation was briefed by Balochistan’s Chief Minister Sardar Sarfraz Bugti and local military officials on the attack, which also killed two soldiers and injured 53 people in total.

The official statement said Pakistan’s security forces and law enforcement agencies “will relentlessly pursue all those involved in this barbaric act,” vowing to bring “the architects, abettors and enablers of this crime” to justice.

It added the incident had exposed India’s “cunning role” to the world, revealing how it orchestrated militant violence while simultaneously portraying itself as a victim.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs earlier in the day rejected Pakistan’s allegations, describing them as Islamabad’s attempt to deflect responsibility for its own failings and internal issues.

The latest attack follows a brief military standoff between the two countries earlier this month, which ended in a ceasefire on May 10.

While hostilities along the border have subsided, both sides continue to trade diplomatic barbs, accusing each other of sponsoring terrorism and destabilizing the region.

School bus targeted in a suicide blast in pictured in Pakistan's southwestern Khuzdar district on May 21, 2025. (Jawad Yousafzai)

The attack in Khuzdar, which targeted children en route to an army-run school, was condemned by US Chargé d’Affaires Natalie Baker and UNICEF in separate statements.

It was also reminiscent of one of the deadliest militant attacks in Pakistan’s history when over 130 children were killed in a military school in the northern city of Peshawar in 2014. That attack was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban group.


India expels second Pakistani diplomat amid ongoing tensions

Updated 21 May 2025
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India expels second Pakistani diplomat amid ongoing tensions

  • India declares Pakistani diplomat persona non grata, orders him to leave the country within 24 hours
  • India expelled another Pakistani diplomat on May 13, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: India has expelled a second Pakistani diplomat within ten days, declaring him persona non grata for activities “not in keeping with his official status,” the external affairs ministry in New Delhi announced on Wednesday.

The move comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries following a military standoff earlier this month. Despite a ceasefire agreement reached on May 10, diplomatic relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors remain strained.

“The Government of India has declared a Pakistani official, working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, persona non grata for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status in India,” the Indian ministry said in its statement.

“The official has been asked to leave India within 24 hours,” it added.

This is the second such expulsion in recent weeks. On May 13, India expelled a Pakistani diplomat on similar grounds. In response, Pakistan declared an Indian High Commission staffer in Islamabad persona non grata.

The Indian ministry also summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission to issue a demarche, emphasizing that Pakistani diplomats must not “misuse their privileges and status in any manner.”

As of now, Pakistan’s foreign office has not responded to the latest development.


Pakistan’s health minister assures Palestinian counterpart of medical support

Updated 11 min 30 sec ago
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Pakistan’s health minister assures Palestinian counterpart of medical support

  • Syed Mustafa Kamal meets Dr. Maged Abu Ramadan at the World Health Assembly in Switzerland
  • Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals and health workers in Gaza, causing international concern

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s health minister Syed Mustafa Kamal informed his Palestinian counterpart that a framework has been developed to provide medical assistance to the people of Gaza, according to an official statement on Wednesday, during a meeting on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly in Switzerland.

Kamal’s meeting with the Palestinian health minister, Dr. Maged Awni Muhammad Abu Ramadan, took place at a time when Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted hospitals and health facilities in Gaza, crippling the enclave’s health care system.

Israeli attacks have also led to international concern over violations of humanitarian norms in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

“We stand with our Palestinian brothers and will provide all possible medical support to heal their wounds,” the health ministry quoted Kamal as saying.

He strongly condemned Israel’s targeting of hospitals and health care workers, urging the international community to take concrete action to end the atrocities against Palestinians, including women and children.

“The brutality and oppression must stop,” he was quoted as saying. “The world must hold Israel accountable.”

Earlier this week, Pakistan condemned Israel’s targeting of hospitals in Gaza and described its announcement of taking control of the entire Palestinian territory as a “grave threat” to regional peace.

The remarks by the Pakistani foreign office came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his government wanted to take control of the Gaza Strip.


Pakistani military blames ‘Indian-sponsored’ militants for children’s death in northwest this week

Updated 21 May 2025
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Pakistani military blames ‘Indian-sponsored’ militants for children’s death in northwest this week

  • Protests broke out in North Waziristan after a suspected drone strike reportedly led to the killings of four children
  • The military says initial investigations have revealed the incident was carried out by ‘Fitna Al Khwarij’ militants

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military on Wednesday denied responsibility for the death of four children in North Waziristan earlier this week, attributing the incident to a proscribed militant network which it said was operating on “the behest of their Indian masters.”

The incident occurred on May 19 in the Hurmuz village of Mir Ali tehsil, where a suspected drone strike reportedly led to the death of four children from the same family and injuries to five others, including a woman.

The tragedy sparked protests in the area, with locals staging a sit-in and refusing to bury the deceased until authorities provided clarity on the incident and ensured accountability for the loss of innocent lives.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, dismissed allegations implicating Pakistan’s security forces in the strike, labeling the accusations as “entirely baseless” and part of a “coordinated disinformation campaign” aimed at discrediting the military’s counterterrorism efforts.

“Initial findings have established that this heinous act has been orchestrated and executed by Indian-sponsored Fitna Al Khwarij,” the statement said, using a term commonly employed by Pakistani authorities to describe extremist factions like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The term “khwarij” is rooted in early Islamic history and refers to an extremist sect that declared other Muslims apostates.

“It is evident that these elements — acting at the behest of their Indian Masters — continue to exploit civilian areas and vulnerable populations as shields to conduct their reprehensible acts of terrorism,” the statement added. “Such tactics aims to unsuccessfully sow discord between the local population and the security forces, who together remain resolute to uproot the menace of terrorism.”

The military also reaffirmed its commitment to bringing the perpetrators to justice, emphasizing its ongoing efforts to combat militant violence in the region.