Jinnah’s speech often quoted by Pakistani citizens who are free to go to temples and places of worship remain relegated to history textbooks.
“I have a problem with the use of the term ‘minority’. It only serves other religious groups within the country and reinforces existing divisions. We are all equal citizens of Pakistan.”
Christians like Pastor Daniel met among hundreds gathered in the Karachi YMCA on Sunday for the march of minority rights, which, ironically, was held a day before, since “minorities would not take a day off to celebrate it.”
Jinnah’s speech often quoted by Pakistani citizens who are free of going to temples and places of worship remain relegated to history textbooks, since the realities lived for religious minorities throughout Pakistan are far from that freedom once promised.
“Christians like me are not allowed to preach their religion, and we can rarely practice it without fear of the supposed majority,” Daniel of the Pentecostal Church of Karachi of Philadelphia said.
Jinnah’s speech and his very education were woven through the itinerary of the day. The speakers emphasized that their early education was in the schools founded by religious minorities, to whom these schools now remain largely inaccessible.
The Sunday march focused on two main demands: the denationalization of educational institutions and the end of forced conversions.
“The greatest discrimination against the Christian community and the minority communities in general is that the institutions we build, the institutions that equipped Jinnah to become quaid of the country, have now been captured under elitist policies and are inaccessible to the population of general minorities,” said Luke Victor, an organizer of the march, he said, he said. Dawn.com.
Victor explained that the denationalization policy has been in force during the last 40 years, but the educational institutions have not yet been returned to the Church administration.
“We have a right under article 22 to administer our own institutions, but the nationalization policy is ultra viles of that,” Víctor explained. Article 22 of the Constitution describes the safeguards regarding educational institutions regarding religion. “
“It is a kind of theft of our inheritance, of our educational institutions.”
Other speakers emphasized how former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was empowered by his School of Grammar Mater Karachi, founded by the first reverend of the city chaplain Henry Brereton, but barely has Christian students today.
“Systemic discrimination and biased policies have kept minorities away from the institutions in which they ever founded and prospered. Now they face a cycle of educational exclusion created by the State,” a position on the official account of the March X of the Rights of minorities said.
On the other hand, Christian founded public schools such as the YMCA are vacant and are misused after being carried under government control as part of the nationalization policy.
Several points made in the march were amplified speeches of a solid social media campaign that the March Rights team had begun before the event. #EducationForal #givebackorinStitions #stopforcedConversions and #Meramazhabmerimarzi were just some of the hashtags on the social networks of the team, which were also seen on posters.
“The State has stolen our educational institutions,” sang a speaker for applause from a colorful sea of participants dressed in syndially Sindhi Chunri Impressions, eating Papad and bhel Sold by vendors who followed the crowd while marching to the Chowk of the Arts Council. The crowd was a microcosm of how minority communities in Pakistan tend to be seen: intergenerational, very united, small but powerful.
Many in the crowd were as young as the pre -adolescent Christian and Hindu girls kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam.
One of the many slogans that reverberate through the multitude of 500 people. ‘Mazhab Nahi, Soch Badlo‘(Change your mentality, no religion), which requested the end of the forced conversions of the Hindu girls.
“If you cannot get a driver’s license or have a weapon before the age of 18, why are forced conversions allowed before that age?” A speaker asked a private shelter for minority young people who became force.
The failure of the State in this case is two points; On the one hand, he cannot protect religious minorities to become forcibly. On the other hand, the police refuse to recover the kidnapped and converted, claiming that girls have now embraced Islam and parents must stop looking for their recovery.
According to a study conducted by the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, Sindh, a province that houses the largest Hindu population in the country, has seen a massive exodus of Hindus towards India.
“We have a total of 11 demands today, the main one is the end of the forced conversion of the Hindu girls,” said organizer Rampal Singh, who put on a sea green turban and Kurta Shalwar, with his Hindu brothers.
“This is not a protest but a celebration for us,” Singh proclaimed, promising to be with his Muslim brothers on August 14 as “they are standing with us today.”
“I am a son of this floor, and everything we are asking today is that, please listen to us and our problems.”
Suhani Naveej, from the Jaguti Foundation, detailed his work on the issue of forced conversion. “Many Hindu parents now refuse to make their daughter’s CNIC card (identity cards) not used as evidence in court, declaring her a legal adult if she is ever kidnapped and converted by force.”
Naveej believed that the apathy of the State towards the difficult situation of Hindu girls often leaves them vulnerable to social and educational inequalities.
“The lack of a CNIC card severely affects the future perspectives of girls, prohibiting access to education, medical care, among other basic facilities,” Naveej said.
Even so, the activist was still hopeful. Through his work, his objective is to rebuild the confidence of the Hindu community in state institutions. She has repeatedly asked the State to support her efforts to unite the division that has taken roots only due to the negligence of the State.
While expressing despair for the state of forced conversions, the activist and organizer Najma Maheshwari said: “It is supposed to be a day of celebration for us, but instead, we are forced to protest our basic rights and that our daughters are not carried.”
Voluntary migration also has its roots in religious discontent. Several nurses who belong to religious minorities flee from the country due to harassment in the workplace, which Pastor Naomi Bashir urged the government to finish, as well as to address the serious shortage of nurses in Pakistan.
‘Apna Kachra Khud Uthao’
There was an almost palpable disgust of the crowd when the speakers approached the synonym of health workers with religious minorities, particularly Christian and Hindu, who are often known as “”Churra” and “Bhangi”(Derogative terms used for cleaners).
“We always see those work listings for health work or CaquelRequest exclusively non -Muslims. These actions constitute and promote systemic exclusion against religious communities, pushing them towards the margins, ”said Sanjana Kumar, co -founder of the Jagruti Foundation. Dawn.com.
The Jagruti Foundation is an initiative that aims to promote education in unattended communities.
Kumar, among many others in the march, questioned discrimination, asking if cleaning is “Nifs-iimaan In Islam (half of faith), why is responsibility only in religious minorities?
“Is that why we vote as part of Pakistan? So we could collect garbage,” asked an organizer while stimulating the crowd of the “shame, shame.”
The nightmare and the gloom of the day were replaced by multitudes dancing and balanced to a harmonium player who sang Damadam Mast Qalandar while the sun broke a cloudy sky that protected the multitude of an unbearable heat.
“Song stronger to reach the place where the laws are approved,” said one of the organizers while gesturing the Sindh assembly behind him, where Pakistan’s resolution was approved.
“We live here before Pakistan formed, and we will continue to live here because for us, the importance of this land is equivalent to that of our mother,” said Maheshwari.
“We have been fighting in all our lives, and we will continue to our last breath.”
Image of heading: A woman holds a wooden cross outside the Sindh Assembly in the march of minority rights held in Karachi on August 10, 2025. Shifa photo
