Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Persecution and the Failure of Human Rights Protection
Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. Photo: @ADN contributor
International human rights law does not only require Pakistan to avoid direct discrimination. It also requires the state to protect minorities from violence, investigate abuses, and ensure effective remedies.
By Rahmatullah Achakzai
The persecution of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan is a sustained human rights crisis rooted in discriminatory law, social hostility, and weak state protection. Recent reports of police pressure around Ahmadi funeral rites in Badin are not isolated events but part of a broader pattern in which the community faces restrictions on worship, burial, speech, voting, and physical security.[1]
Pakistan’s treatment of Ahmadis is shaped by laws that formally exclude them from equal citizenship. Human Rights Watch notes that Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslim in 1974 and later amended its penal code in 1984 to criminalize core aspects of their faith, including publicly declaring themselves Muslim, using Islamic religious language, or referring to their places of worship as mosques.[2] These laws do not merely regulate conduct but they target identity and belief itself. Amnesty International similarly reports that the legal framework has been used to prohibit Ahmadis from manifesting their religion and to expose them to arbitrary arrest and criminal prosecution.
This framework also affects the political participation of Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan. HRW states that Pakistan’s electoral law effectively excludes Ahmadis unless they renounce their faith or accept a separate list identifying them as non-Muslim. In practice, this turns citizenship into a conditional status. The exclusion from the National Commission for Minorities reinforced the same pattern of institutional denial, showing that discrimination is not only social but embedded in state policy.
Ahmadis in Pakistan face recurring violence from both non-state actors and, at times, state agents who fail to protect them. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in July 2024 a grave rise in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detentions, attacks on places of worship, and restrictions on peaceful assembly and association. The report also noted repeated attacks on Ahmadi cemeteries and worship sites, which show that even the dead are not immune from abuse.[3]
The authorities have at times arrested or detained Ahmadis under pressure from mobs, rather than protecting them from threats. In such cases, law enforcement does not function as a shield for vulnerable citizens but becomes part of the coercive environment. This is a serious failure of due diligence because states have a duty not only to refrain from abuse but also to prevent foreseeable harm by private actors.
Amnesty International reports that Pakistani authorities have long downplayed, and at times encouraged, hostility against Ahmadis, contributing to a climate where violence and harassment become normalized.
Ahmadis are frequently excluded from public institutions, face discrimination in education and employment, and are targeted through blasphemy accusations that can lead to arrest, mob violence, or both.
Pakistan’s treatment of Ahmadis violates several core international human rights norms. The most direct breach is Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to manifest one’s religion in worship, observance, and practice. Criminalizing Ahmadi religious expression is incompatible with this right.[4]
Article 19 of the ICCPR protects freedom of expression, which is violated when Ahmadis are barred from identifying their faith or speaking openly about their beliefs. Article 21 protects peaceful assembly, and Article 22 protects freedom of association, both of which are undermined when Ahmadi worship gatherings are disrupted or detained. Article 26 guarantees equality before the law and non-discrimination, yet Pakistan’s constitutional and statutory regime treats Ahmadis differently because of their beliefs.
Article 27 is also relevant because it protects the rights of religious minorities to enjoy their own culture and practise their religion. Although the Ahmadi community is not a conventional ethnic minority, the principle applies to religious minorities whose collective religious life is suppressed. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is also implicated, especially Articles 18, 19, 20, 21, and 26, which affirm freedom of religion, expression, assembly, political participation, and education. The repeated denial of burial rights, worship access, and civic equality directly conflicts with these norms.
International human rights law does not only require Pakistan to avoid direct discrimination. It also requires the state to protect minorities from violence, investigate abuses, and ensure effective remedies.
The UN experts said in 2024 that discriminatory laws and blasphemy provisions are structural drivers of abuse and called for their repeal or amendment to bring Pakistan into compliance with the ICCPR. That obligation is especially important because unchecked hostility can escalate into impunity. The Ahmadi case shows how law can be used to legitimize exclusion.
The persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan is a continuing violation of basic human rights and international legal obligations. It affects religious liberty, personal security, political participation, equality, and the right to live with dignity. A rights-respecting response requires repeal of discriminatory provisions, accountability for violence, protection of places of worship and burial sites, and equal treatment of Ahmadis as citizens under law.
Rahmatullah Achakzai is a journalist based in Balochistan, covering human rights, regional politics, and cross-border issues.
Note: The contents of the article are of sole responsibility of the author. Afghan Diaspora Network will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in the articles.
[1] https://nayadaur.tv/16-Jun-2026/ahmadi-community-alleges-police-pressure-funeral-rites-badin
[2] https://minorityrights.org/communities/ahmaddiyas/?ki-cf-botcl=1
[3] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/pakistan-widespread-impunity-violence-and-discrimination-against-minorities
[4] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/pakistan-experts-urge-immediate-end-discrimination-and-violence-against
