Overview:

• State religion is Islam.

• Recognition and registration are differentiated in Pakistan.

• Government is directly involved in managing the issue of blasphemy and Islamic education.

• Persecution of Ahmadi Muslims by the government demonstrates terminality and also shows that state definitions and interpretations of Islam are in effect.

• Violence and harassment directed towards Christians, Hindus and other non-Muslim minorities is ongoing and is perpetuated by both state and social actions.

Pakistani Kashmir:

• Citizenship is misused as a way of restricting religious and belief activity.

• Normativism in the region is widespread which has caused intolerance of religious diversity to be deeply entrenched.

Positive elements:

• Nil.

Recommendations:

• Dismantlement of the present abuse of recognition and the vast apparatus that the government wields to perpetuate terminal restrictions on religious activity.

• Establishment of a new recognition system that treats all belief systems equally and bestows both existential recognition and legal registration through distinct procedures and across multiple levels of activity; the disestablishment of Islam may need to occur in order to ensure the system’s equality if the government cannot prove in practice its equal treatment to religions.

• Ongoing issues of normativism and societal intolerance of alternative belief identities should be resolved through more sophisticated means of religious education and the use of mutual recognition as a message spread by government on the importance of religious pluralism.