Religious minority inmates in prisons in Pakistan endure systemic discrimination and harsher treatment compared to their Muslim counterparts.
Newsroom (20/08/2025, Gaudium Press )Religious minority inmates in Pakistan prisons endure systemic discrimination and harsher treatment compared to their Muslim counterparts, according to a new report by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), the human rights arm of the Pakistani Catholic bishops.
The report, Hope Behind Bars, released on August 15, draws on firsthand testimonies to highlight the resilience of inmates who, despite facing injustice, strive to maintain dignity, faith, and education. It reveals that Hindu and Christian prisoners are often subjected to degrading treatment once their religious identity is disclosed. Prison authorities assign them menial tasks, such as cleaning toilets, and deny them sentence remission opportunities routinely granted to Muslim inmates.
The study, conducted between May 2023 and March 2025, surveyed 128 prisons across six regions: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan. These facilities house approximately 102,026 inmates, including 1,748 from religious minority groups, with Punjab holding the majority at 1,588.
Christian prisoners, in particular, face severe prejudice, often labeled as “untouchables” and subjected to abuse by both prison staff and Muslim inmates. The report notes that between 2022 and 2025, 1,937 Muslim prisoners in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received sentence reductions for memorizing the Quran or observing Ramadan, a benefit not extended to Christian, Hindu, or Sikh inmates.
Among the most persecuted are those charged with blasphemy, a grave offense in Pakistan’s conservative Islamic legal framework. As of June 2025, at least 705 prisoners, both Muslim and non-Muslim, were incarcerated for blasphemy in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the state-run National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR).
The report cites the case of Nadeem James, a Christian man from Gujrat, Punjab, who was sentenced to death for allegedly sharing a “blasphemous” poem via WhatsApp in 2016. According to his brother, Faryad Masih, authorities detained eight family members and subjected them to beatings to coerce James into surrendering. “He was also beaten in custody and is taken to solitary confinement every night,”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from UCAN News
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