The EU Is Enabling Religious Persecution in Pakistan
by Uzay Bulut • October 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
Pakistan has for years been seriously repressing its minorities, political dissidents, human right advocates and journalists – even transnationally. Nevertheless, Pakistan continues to enjoy the benefits of the European Union's special incentive arrangement under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+).
Journalists in Pakistan (and even the family members of exiled journalists) are subject to enforced disappearances. Journalist Asif Karim Khehtran and the brothers of U.S.-based exiled Pakistani journalist Ahmad Noorani were abducted in March 2025 and remain missing.
A 2025 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom documented that more than 700 individuals in 2025 were imprisoned on charges of "blasphemy." This figure represented a 300% increase from the previous year.
These acts are not isolated incidents but part of a broader campaign of religious "cleansing," driven by radical Islamist groups such as the TLP and facilitated by a legal system that criminalizes Ahmadi identity.
Pakistan's fierce blasphemy laws continue to target religious minorities. The HRCP report documents that increasingly, minority individuals accused of blasphemy are lynched by mobs or murdered while seeking police protection.... The rise in hate speech, threats against judicial figures, and the politicization of bar associations only propel a dangerous tilt toward Islamic radicalism within state institutions.
The police appear more interested in appeasing local Islamic strongmen and keeping things calm than in implementing the law and protecting minorities.
The European Union should stand for the principles and ideals on which its Generalized System of Preferences was based. At present, it is simply furthering intolerable behavior and embarrassing itself.
Pakistan is engulfed in a deepening crisis of religious intolerance and systemic persecution. This year has witnessed a disturbing surge of violence, discrimination and institutional complicity. Christian, Ahmadiyya and Hindu communities have particularly been targeted.
Despite repeated calls for reform and international condemnation, Pakistan's failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens has left a trail of shattered lives, desecrated places of worship, and a society increasingly fractured by hate.
Pakistan has for years been seriously repressing its minorities, political dissidents, human right advocates and journalists – even transnationally. Nevertheless, Pakistan continues to enjoy the benefits of the European Union's special incentive arrangement under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+).
The contradiction was highlighted once again at the United Nations.
