Tag: Nawaz Sharif

Amnesty: ‘Discrimination rife in all regions of the world … with deadly consequences’

February 23, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Boko Haram, Censorship, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulani herdsmen, Gujrat, Human rights, Iran, Lakshan Dias, Marawi, Mardan, Nadeem Masih, Nawaz Sharif, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Religious freedom, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa

Buddhist flags are waved during a mass demonstration against Christianity in Sri Lanka, April 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A review of the human-rights situation in 159 countries during 2017, published by Amnesty International yesterday (22 February), shows that religious persecution continues in the form of threats, attacks, extrajudicial killings and even genocide, while harsh sentences continue to be handed out – sometimes even death sentences – for changing . . . Read More

Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy protests showcase minorities’ plight

November 27, 2017 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Barelvi, Blasphemy, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Minorities, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Mumtaz Qadri, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Peshawar, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Rawalpindi, Salmaan Taseer, Sheikhupura, Sufi, Sunni, Taliban, Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan

In November there were widespread anti-blasphemy protests in Islamabad and other cities in reaction to proposed changes to an election law. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Anti-blasphemy protests in Pakistan have once again highlighted the fragile position of the country’s religious minorities. Life in various parts of Pakistan virtually came to a halt on Saturday (25 November) after the police, paramilitary and other law enforcement agencies clashed with rioters in the capital, Islamabad, resulting in protests . . . Read More

Pakistan Christian sentenced to death for WhatsApp ‘blasphemy’, despite gaps in police case

September 20, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Nadeem Masih, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab

Six days after a Pakistani Christian was sentenced to death for blasphemy, the young man’s lawyer says there was insufficient evidence against his client and that the police failed to investigate the matter properly. Nadeem Masih, 24, from the Yaqoobabad area of the religiously conservative city of Gujrat, in Punjab . . . Read More

70 years after Pakistan’s founding, what PM’s recent ousting means for minorities

August 14, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Divorce, Imran Khan, India, Islamic extremism, Jamaat-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Mumtaz Qadri, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, PTI, Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, Sindh, Taliban

70th Annual General Assembly Debate

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session.

30 September 2015

United Nations, New York

Photo # 646792

UN Photo/Cia Pak

Pakistan celebrates its 70th birthday today (14 August). And there’s a new Prime Minister after Nawaz Sharif, founder of the largest political party, was disqualified by the apex court on 29 July on charges of not being “righteous” and “ameen”*. This Supreme Court decision about Sharif “will throw the governing . . . Read More

‘Blasphemy’ leads to another murder in Pakistan

April 19, 2017 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Mardan, Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has urged his countrymen to collectively condemn the lynching of a Muslim student killed for allegedly posting “blasphemous” content on Facebook. Mashal Khan, 23, was reportedly “stripped, beaten, shot, and thrown from the second floor” of the Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, northern Pakistan, . . . Read More

Pakistan government to Facebook, Twitter: Remove insults to Islam

March 17, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Nabeel Masih, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League

A Pakistani government minister has asked Facebook and Twitter to remove content considered insulting to Islam or Muhammad. “We will go to any extent even if we have to go to the extent of permanently blocking all such social media websites, if they refuse to cooperate,” Interior Minister Nisar . . . Read More

Pakistan PM premature in saying country will soon be ‘minority-friendly’

January 31, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Jamaat-e-Islami, Minorities, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party, Punjab, Sindh

Pakistan’s Prime Minister has said “the day is not far off when Pakistan will internationally be known as a minority-friendly country”. Pakistani Christians hold candles at a rally in Lahore on 29 March, 2016, after a terrorist attack claimed the lives of more than 70 people celebrating Easter. Meanwhile, a . . . Read More

5 Pakistani Christians released, 2 jailed for ‘blasphemy’ of calling pastor a ‘prophet’

June 30, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Nawaz Sharif, Prophet Muhammad

Pastor Fazal Masih, who died 20 years ago, was hailed as a ‘prophet’ on a flyer inviting Christians to a memorial ceremony.World Watch Monitor UPDATE (1 July, 2016): Five Pakistani Christians charged with blasphemy last year in the religiously conservative city of Gujrat have been acquitted, but two others have been . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians bury their dead after Easter massacre

March 31, 2016 Pakistan Easter, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Lahore, Nawaz Sharif, Taliban

The aftermath of a bomb blast in the middle of a popular Lahore amusement park packed with people on Easter Day.Abid Nawaz for World Watch Monitor Parvaiz Masih didn’t know his son was among the hundreds injured in the Easter bombing of a crowded park in Pakistan until the . . . Read More

Pakistan’s bombing ‘part of wider struggle’

March 29, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Easter, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Lahore, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Taliban, Terrorism

The Lahore bombing on Easter Sunday that killed at least 70 is part of a wider struggle against extremism in Pakistan, explains a British correspondent for . He was in the country during what he calls an Easter ‘weekend of madness’; it also saw 25,000 hard-line Islamic protestors march on . . . Read More

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