Pakistan - December 2025

On 17 December, Pakistan’s president assented to the long-delayed National Commission for Minority Rights Bill 2025, fulfilling a decade-old Supreme Court directive to establish a statutory body dedicated to protecting minority rights. The law creates a National Commission for Minorities Rights to monitor violations, advise the government and support non-Muslim religious communities, replacing a previous ad-hoc advisory body. The framework mandates the inclusion of women and members from every province in the Commission and introduces mechanisms to assist victims of minority-related abuses—marking an important step toward institutionalizing minority rights. However, rights advocates and opposition parties criticized the bill for explicitly excluding the long-persecuted Ahmadi community (legally declared non-Muslim since 1974), arguing it further entrenches their lack of legal protections. 

Sources: The Express Tribune, Courting the Law, Dawn, International Human Rights Committee, National Assembly of Pakistan