The new Commission is presented as a step towards reform. But lawmakers and the Law Minister explicitly stated there will be no reform and no protection for the Ahmadis.
Pakistan’s Parliament has approved the creation of a National Commission for Minority Rights. The move was presented as a step toward reform. Still, the details reveal something very different: the new body will not extend protections to Ahmadi Muslims, a community long targeted by state-backed discrimination.
In a joint session, lawmakers and Azam Nazeer Tarar, the Federal Minister on Law and Justice, stated openly that Ahmadis would only be eligible for the Commission’s protection if they renounced their faith and accepted that they are not Muslims. The declaration, made on the floor of Parliament and circulated on social media, was not an accident or a misunderstanding. It was a deliberate exclusion, written into the very framework of the new institution.
By tying recognition to religious renunciation, the government has effectively stripped Ahmadis of the principles that define equal citizenship: justice, equality, and dignity.
For Pakistan’s Ahmadi community, the legislation is not a shield but a confirmation of their precarious status. They remain without minority rights, without equal citizenship, and without recognition unless they abandon their beliefs. This leaves them exposed to the same dangers they have faced for decades: violence, hate speech, targeted killings, and social boycott.
Human rights advocates warn that the Commission entrenches rather than alleviates persecution. The International Human Rights Committee described the measure as “a hypocritical sham,” arguing that it ensures Ahmadis will continue to face mob attacks and exclusion in the country they helped to found.
What is striking is not only the exclusion itself but the candor with which it was announced. Parliamentarians did not attempt to disguise their intent. As IHRC observed, senior ministers have effectively declared that Ahmadis have “no rights, no protections, and no place in the legal order unless they renounce their faith.”
Such a position amounts to state-sanctioned coercion, and it stands in direct contradiction to Pakistan’s obligations under international human-rights conventions and trade frameworks such as the EU’s GSP+.
Rights groups and observers are urging both domestic and international responses. Within Pakistan, advocates demand that the legislation be amended to include Ahmadis without conditions and that the coercive requirement of renouncing belief be abolished. Internationally, governments and institutions are being asked to condemn the exclusion, press Pakistan to align its policies with international law, and monitor the escalating persecution of Ahmadis nationwide.
Ahmadis in Pakistan continue to live as peaceful, law-abiding citizens, yet they are denied the protections guaranteed to every human being. The passage of this law signals not minority protection but the codification of exclusion. Unless challenged, it risks normalizing discrimination as state policy.
