Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
July 04, 2011

Pakistan has abolished its Federal Ministry for Religious Minorities as part of a larger plan of government decentralization approved by the Parliament of Pakistan in February. The move against this specific ministry had been delayed at the urging of the Minister for Minority Affairs Shabhaz Bhatti before his assassination on March 2.

A source in the Pakistan government said the decision to proceed with the ministry’s closing was like killing Bhatti “a second time.” According to the plan, the responsibilities of the ministry will be devolved from the federal level to the provincial level. But this source worried that in practical terms that may mean "removing from the agenda of the central government issues related to minority rights.

"So this kills … Bhatti a second time: the first was his physical elimination, the second is to eliminate his project and his political legacy on which he had dedicated so much time."

The current Minister of State for Minorities, Ackram Gill, like Bhatti a Catholic, protested the ministry’s abolition. Gill led a delegation of parliamentarians and politicians in a discussion about the matter with Pakistan Prime Minister Raza Gilani and organized a protest of Hindus and Christians outside Parliament.

The decision provoked concern and bewilderment among the nation’s religious minorities. "We are disappointed and saddened,” said a Lahore priest, who worried that “the rights of Christians will be put further into obscurity and disappear from the national political agenda.

“We will be even more helpless,” he said. “For the fundamentalists this will be a 'green light' to new aggression, violence and persecution against Christians.”

According to Gill, Prime Minister Gilani assured him that a new federal ministry for interfaith harmony and human rights will be created that would be committed to safeguarding the rights of minority religious groups in Pakistan. The Federal Ministry for religious minorities had been led by Bhatti since it was created in 2008 by a newly elected government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Bhatti was gunned down as he left his mother's home in a residential area of Islamabad after many threats against his life inspired by his frequent public criticism of Pakistan’s blasphemy law. That measure, according to many, has been frequently abused in settling personal scores or suppressing minority rights via trumped-up allegations of blasphemy by non-Muslims against the Koran or the prophet Mohammed.

Regarding Bhatti’s assassination, some progress has been reported. The commission of inquiry organized by the Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said last month that the murder was organized by the "Brigade 313" of Al Qaeda, known as the "ghost army," led by the Pakistani Taliban leader Ilyas Kashmiri. The commission found that a commander of the Taliban in Punjab, Asmatullah Mawaia, issued the order to eliminate Bhatti, and the plan was executed by elements of the extremist group Tehrik-e-Islami.

Paul Bhatti, the brother of the slain minister and currently a special advisor to the prime minister for religious minorities, expressed relief that progress has been made in identifying his brother’s assassins. He said international arrest warrants have been issued for some of the perpetrators of the killing who may be in Dubai. "The investigations into the murder of my brother Shabhaz are finally on the right track,” he said.

“It is the work carried out by the Taliban and Islamic fanatics. After the sidetracking of the inquiry and attempts of reducing the charge of murder due to personal enmity, slinging mud at my brother, the truth is emerging,” he said. “We were convinced that he was killed for his commitment to human rights, the rights of Christians, for the brave denunciation against the blasphemy law. Now the investigation proves us right.

“We are hoping for a rapid conclusion, with the capture of the perpetrators of the crime,” Bhatti said. “It would be a good sign for the health of the state of law in Pakistan."

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican as they join him for the recitation of the Angelus prayer and an appeal for peace hours after the U.S. bombed nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran on June 22. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
“Let diplomacy silence the guns!” Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square a few hours after the United States entered the Iran-Israel war by bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
Gerard O’ConnellJune 22, 2025
Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool during the pope's meeting with members of the media on May 12 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV’s statement was read at the premiere of a play about the Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, who was subject to death threats because of her reporting on sexual abuse.
Gerard O’ConnellJune 21, 2025
Bishop Micheal Pham, center, leads an inter-faith group as they enter a federal building to be present during immigration hearings on June 20 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
About a dozen religious leaders from the San Diego area, including Bishop Michael Pham, visited federal immigration court on Friday “to provide some sense of presence.”
In a time of increasing disaffiliation from and disillusionment with the institutional church, a new theological perspective on the church is needed—one that places Jesus’ own teaching at the center.
Roger Haight, S.J.June 20, 2025