Qamar Rafiq

For years, I have been watching, reading, writing on and, most recently, visiting families who have been targeted for their faith and have faced the worst atrocities. This is an eye-watering experience by anyone’s standards, the challenges facing Christians in Pakistan, remain unchanged for generations. What would you wish for this Christmas? Especially, after religious […]

During my recent trip to Pakistan, I found people upset, exhausted and feel betrayed as they no longer had confidence in the country’s leadership. Perhaps, even more worryingly, the scavengers are circling to conclude that happily ever after is not a fairy tale, it’s a choice we made. Nevertheless, one of the profound luxuries of […]

Last year, during the Covid crisis, the Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith was planning to reject the minorities’ protection bill in Pakistan. In the same year, one of the UK local authorities, Waltham Forest, granted permission to nine mosques to broadcast “Azaan” on the loudspeakers as mosques were closed due to the pandemic […]

I was sitting at the top stage of the ruins of Corfe Castle recently, surrounded by the mountains and valleys of the English county of Dorset. These dramatic medieval ruins stand on a natural hill soaring above the Corfe village prompted me a sea of hundreds of faces whose lives were ruined after falling apart […]

Circus here, circus there, and circus everywhere. I can’t seem to focus on any. Every time I start surfing through Indian news channels, the circus is on. It is unlimited. It is borderless. It is free. It must be fun living in a circus that never stops performing. Parallel to this bespoke fragility, shops of […]

This year’s minorities’ fairy-tale summer will end again on a sour note. The profound spirit of Minority Day itself is lost on account of Pakistan’s failure to show the leadership to safeguard fundamental rights and freedom of religious minorities that was promised on August 11, 1947. The reason is obvious, is not it? Why has […]

Open your eyes as wide as you can and take note of where you are, why you are, and who you are with? For too long, our politics has been alienated by those who believe that decency, compassion, and honesty are not important ingredients of a recipe. That is why our politics has remained polarised […]

The EU Parliament’s joint motion to review GSP+ status over Pakistan’s failure to uphold the Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) and human rights is a mirror reflection of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s speech at the Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947, where he emphasised the importance of religious freedom and the rights of minorities. […]

Perhaps we are so disturbed, or punch-drunk on this Christmas, after a year of being battered by the grey shades of forced conversion, widespread persecution, racial inequalities, and economic disparities that we do not register how shocking this is. I have already shed enough tears this year. Therefore, I am not telling any lies to […]