“Human rights are praised more than ever and violated as much as ever.” These words by Anna Lindh (a Swedish politician) exactly illustrate the gruesome situation of human rights in Pakistan. Although Pakistan has made headway in the protection of human rights it still suffers terrible violence against women, discrimination against minorities, forced disappearances, sectarian violence, targeted killings, gross violations of children’s rights and slavery for bonded labourers. Although people are more aware than ever, the statistics on violations of human rights have been awful and deplorable in the last few years. Literally, the country has become a very difficult place to live in for women, minorities (ethnic and religious) and journalists. The religious political parties’ human rights approach is nothing short of hypocrisy. It only fits their political interests and agenda for gaining public sympathy from selected human rights issues. Ironically, religious parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) that have for years supported laws like the Hudood Ordinance (the Hudood Ordinance was promulgated in 1979 by the military regime of General Ziaul Haq. In it laws pertaining to sexual offence and new punishments of whipping, amputation and stoning to death were included), have now become the ‘upholders’ of ‘women’s rights’. But wait, not all women are on the human rights’ agenda of the JI except Aafia Siddqui. Hardly any religious party raises concerns over the every day humiliation of Pakistani women who face severe torture, abuse and rape. Likewise, religious parties try to remain quiet over the persecution of minorities; one can hardly see any condemnation against the kidnappings of innocent Hindu girls, forced conversions, mob killings and deadly attacks on Shia, Christian, Ahmedi and Hazara communities in Pakistan. In addition, all leading religious parties are in consensus that persons like Osama bin Laden and Hakimullah Mehsud were martyrs; even JI Chief Munwar Hussain went to the extent of saying that Pakistani army soldiers fighting against the Taliban militancy, could not be declared martyrs if they fought against the Taliban. Religious political parties were key in legalising human rights violations by formulating, recommending and supporting discriminatory laws. Most of these laws are seen as divine revelations to punish people, for example, the Hudood (limits) Ordinance, the qisas (retribution) and diyat (blood money) laws, the Blasphemy Law and the anti-Ahmedi legislation. These discriminatory laws have a profound effect on human rights violations in Pakistan. Even the government with two-thirds majority was unable to repeal or amend these discriminatory laws due to fear of religious parties and groups, which is indeed a gruesome act that shows the attitude of religious parties and weakness of democratic governments. It does not matter who is in power; religious parties always object to human rights’ legislation and have always used religion and culture to skew the debate and opinion against change. When the government shows the intention to amend or repeal these discriminatory laws, religious political parties either threaten to boycott parliament or start countrywide violent protests. For instance, in 2010, the Senate unanimously passed The Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Bill and religious parties came out with strong criticism saying that it was un-Islamic. In another case, the MPs of religious parties threatened to resign from parliament if the government amended or repealed the Women Protection Act or The Blasphemy Law. When the government decided to start a crackdown against terrorists involved in the Army Public School (APS) massacre, frontline religious parties, the JUI-F and JI, on one hand condemned the barbaric attack on children but on other hand warned the government that targeting religious seminaries would have “dire consequences”. Furthermore, when the current PML-N government presented the 21st Constitutional Amendment Bill 2015 and the Pakistan Army Act 1952 (Amendment) Bill 2015 in parliament to counter militancy, only religious parties came out with criticism. According to the Ahle Hadith (religious political party, which is an ally of the ruling PML-N), “The government did a grave injustice to religious quarters and literally deceived them by defining terrorism with religion or sect only.” It is quite evident that human rights are just part of a paper agenda for the religious parties, which is in fact against the basic ideals of democracy. According to a collaborative study by South Asia Partnership, the National Assembly spent only 15 hours during all the assembly sessions of 322 working hours discussing minorities’ issues as a whole. This does not only prove that the legislators did not have much time to discuss the everyday persecution of minorities, it also shows that exclusionary democracy is being promoted in the Senate. Being a part of the democratic system, religious political parties are equally responsible for the plight of human rights. In fact, they are more responsible because major violations recorded against minorities, women, sects and blasphemy accused show that religious parties have more influence. They need to play a better role than mainstream secular political parties. The writer is a DAAD graduate scholar and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Development Management in Germany