EUROPE – European Parliament may suspend all subsidies to Pakistan

On the 30 April 2019, fifty-one (51) Members of the European Parliament issued a collective letter addressed to Mr. Imran Khan, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan expressing their concerns, and seeking assurances that the persecution of religious minorities would cease immediately.

The letter highlighted that today’s Pakistan is far removed from being the country that its founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had envisaged. Jinnah had always insisted that Pakistan would be a Muslim majority State where people from all religions, whether Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Ahmadis or Shias, would be treated equally. Over the last seven decades, successive governments in Pakistan have contributed to implementing discriminatory systems that have resulted in political, economic and social persecution of religious minorities, which have encouraged acts of violence against them by radical Islamic groups.

In the letter, the Members of the European Parliament criticize Pakistan and its establishment for falsely accusing and targeting individuals under the blasphemy law. They specifically cited the internationally condemned case of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who had been falsely charged, harassed and sentenced to death row due to the country’s Blasphemy Laws.

The Members of the European Parliament urged Pakistan to take measures to dismantle the constitutional and institutional structures that have resulted in the purposeful targeting of religious minorities in the country. Should the violations of the International Covenant on Freedom of Religion continue, especially with regard to the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan, the Members of the European Parliament having signed the letter, would be compelled to call on the European Commission to suspend all subsidies and trade preferences until the effective implementation of the Convention could be assured by the Government of Pakistan.

Letter has been signed by the following Members of the European Parliament