mong the audio recordings of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s speeches delivered in 1947, one is conspicuously missing. It is his famous August 11 speech, delivered days ahead of the emergence of Pakistan. Jinnah’s assurance to minorities in the new state was among the major takeaways of this historic speech. Jinnah uttered in unequivocal terms, “You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan.” He added, “You may belong to any religion, caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”

The speech was censored by the powers that be for the next days’ newspapers. Decades later, the message remains suppressed.

The fundamental rights outlined in Articles 8 to 28 of the constitution include essential principles such as equality before law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly as well as the freedom to practice religion. Article 20 states that subject to law, public order and morality, “every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion” and “every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.” However, violators of these rights have never been prosecuted successfully.

Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani took suo motu regarding the plight of minorities in the country in 2014, following an attack on a church in Peshawar in 2013 and rendered a 60-page detailed judgment, raising hopes of things getting better. The judgment outlined some significant steps the government needed to take to protect the minorities.

The court directed the federal government to establish a task force to create an environment of religious coexistence. It held that the curricula in schools and colleges should be designed to promote religious and cultural co-existence. The federal government was also ordered to take steps to reduce hate speech on social media and hold hate-mongers accountable. The court also ordered that a National Council for Minority Rights be constituted to facilitate the federal and provincial governments in protection of religious minorities. A police force, especially trained for protection of religious places was to be established. The attorney general and the additional advocate generals were instructed to safeguard and ensure implementation of minority quotas in government jobs. The court directed that the hearing of cases in which worship places of religious minorities were desecrated, be expedited and that the perpetrators of such crimes be brought to justice. The court also directed that a mechanism be introduced to ensure that that these recommendations were implemented in letter and spirit.

In a report published by United Nations Human Rights in April this year, experts expressed grave concerns regarding the status of minorities in Pakistan. They pointed out that Christian and Hindu girls remain particularly vulnerable to forced religious conversion, child marriage, abduction, trafficking, domestic servitude and sexual violence.

Ten years on a lot remains to be done. In a report published by United Nations Human Rights in April this year, experts expressed grave concern regarding the status of minorities in Pakistan. They pointed out that Christian and Hindu girls remain particularly vulnerable to forced religious conversion, child marriage, abduction, trafficking, domestic servitude and sexual violence. The report noted that perpetrators of such crimes often enjoyed virtual impunity as the police either turn a blind eye or condone such crimes. The UN experts asked Pakistan “…to bring perpetrators to justice, enforce existing legal protections against child, early and forced marriage, abduction and trafficking of minority girls and uphold the country’s international human rights obligations.”

The Human Rights Watch raised similar concerns in its 2023 report on Pakistan. “Women, religious minorities and transgender people continued to face violence, discrimination and persecution, with authorities failing to provide adequate protection or hold perpetrators to account,” it stated. The report also stated that the governments had done very little to hold law enforcement agencies accountable for torture and other serious abuses against people of the minorities communities. It mentioned members of the Ahmadiyya community and Christians as soft targets for persecutions under blasphemy laws.

It has been argued that Pakistan was created to protect the rights of the largest minority in British India. However, this solution left behind minorities in both India and Pakistan. The repression of minorities in India and abuse of their rights in Pakistan suggest that lot of work still needs to be done in this regard.

Dr Muhammad Abrar Zahoor heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com His X handle: @AbrarZahoor1