It seems, that the Federal Government and the Provincial Governments have completely failed to understand the seriousness and social implication of this issue, and are providing no protection to minorities in Pakistan. Per Constitution, it is the duty of Authorities to protect the life and property of Minorities. Why do the members of the National Assembly and of Provincial Assemblies not take any notice of this injustice to minorities. Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and Ahmadis living in the country, are patriotic Pakistani citizens. They pay taxes, create jobs, and actively contribute to the progress of the country through their professions. As a child, I was taught, that the white color in the flag of Pakistan represents Minorities in Pakistan! Hate preachers prepare the minds. And these minds kill the minorities. I agree with the Editorial, that "the fire has begun to consume the very foundation of the country".

Government has repeatedly failed to protect minorities and there has never been any arrest in minority’s killings.

Minorities should be provided equal rights and justice like any other Pakistani. Supreme court needs to act on it fast by forcing Federal government to provide all the needed help to Minorites

Any goverment can only do so much but it's the mindset of the majority which needs to change in Pakistan

@L Ahmad The government has miserably failed to provide the protection,shelter and other basic needs to every Pakistani whether they are Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Ahmadi's and Christians. The government remains spunky to load their own accounts.

Stop putting everything on govt and vindicating the society as whole. This same country pushed govt to block Youtube for a video they weren't forced to watch. Nations where weak are not protected are nations without soul.

Why are they called minorities? Why there is legislation against them? Why government is sponsoring criminal acts against them by highlighting their religion in passports, admission forms of institutions etc etc and providing opportunities to those who want to carry out criminal acts against them? How many killers of minorities have been punished by our free judiciary in the last 50 years? ..These and many other questions make us think if it is state sponsored persecution.

Yes the author is correct...institutionalized intolerance of minorities is a badge of shame for Pakistan...somehow the principles of tolerance for other religions must be instituted in Pakistan...Pakistanis should join the many civilized nations who have freedom of religion and freedom of speech as basic rights of individuals..it is 2014...when will you wake up...

Why govt. doesn't even raise a voice when such incidence happens in Pakistan.

Congratulations!

Please army, police, government & the general public - stop this mindless brutality against our minorities. Do not follow the path of the violent Arabs as in Syria, Iraq, ISIS, etc. We belong to a more refined sub continental culture. Let us be proud of our uniqueness. We are from a very old and civilised culture. Celebrate peaceful co existence with our valuable minority religious followers.

World religious leaders (I mean the decent leaders, not terror minded ones) must jointly forge a common religion to avoid such misbehaving.... For me (May be right or wrong) all the religions has plus & minuses... The world must combine the plus ones & leave the minus ones... This may reduce the religious terror to a larger extent...

Another great editorial from Dawn...My salutes to you...

This editorial has failed to mention the prime victims (Shias) in Pakistan. Thousands have been killed so far including hundreds of doctors and other walks of life. The ignorant mentality (Islamic extremism) will soon be take over across the country and today majority of people who are silent on barbarism and injustices carried out by the maniacs, will pay the price. History repeats itself but people do not get the lesson.

Minorities should all gang up together and fight for their rights to life and security , disunity among them will hasten the process of neutralization by rogue elements of society.

People in Pakistan only speak of equality among their sects/ethnicity only. for people belong to other sect/ethnicity does not fall under the same category.

How come no mention of repealing blasphemy laws? Clean up constitution and make it independent of any one faith.

@S. Haider It is true that government is not doing its job in protecting our minorities, and the madrassas are teaching hatred of non-muslims to our children. However, instead of blaming the government agencies, and the madrassas for the mistreatment of our minorities, we need to educate our own children on the real teaching of Islam. I can not believe that the madrassas have more influence on the children than their parents do, and the parents are not fulfilling their responsibilities to their children by not teaching them the difference between right and wrong. We need to do something constructive to alleviate this problem other than just issuing statements of condemnation or participating in protest marches. This, I believe is the only way we can create harmony between followers of different faiths and develop tolerance and respect of various faiths.

All of the comments so far on this issue have blamed the government in one way or another. Have we asked ourselves what each of us as an individual can do to alleviate and eliminate this problem? True the government has failed to provide adequate protection to our minorities, but are we as individuals doing our part to address this issue. All I have seen or read is issuance of condemnation and protest marches, which I believe is never going to solve this shameful mistreatment of our minorities. Standing against people and Imams who teach and preach hatred is the one and only way to create harmony among communities and develop tolerance of different faiths.

Unless and until these hatemongers are not reigned in, persecution of minorities in Pakistan is not going to end. The free preaching of bigotry and distribution of hate material with impunity in Pakistan is on its peak, which is inciting people to take lives of innocent people of minority groups – including Christians, Ahmadis . Alarmingly, the people at the helm of affairs appear to be so afraid of condemning these acts and taking any action against these running amok hatemongers, which are very well known to almost everyone.

How can we expect from Government that it will protect minorities, while there are some ordinances remain in the constitution, imposed by dictator zia, which can easily be used to threaten and kill minorities, and extremist people, after killing innocent minority people, sit behind these ordinances.If today, we are in true democracy, then why our constitutional laws are not democratic. Unfortunately, there are some laws made by dictators still present in constitution. e.g. Ordinance XX of 1984, Ordinance XLIV of 1980. Why a democratic Government cannot remove these laws from constitution as it was imposed by dictator zia ul haq??? These are not the democratic laws, these were not present in 1974 constitution.

Government officials give these statements that Christians have no problem at all they equal rights but the reality is entirely different which is completely ridiculous, even the whole world knows about it. Government of Pakistan is well aware of it but cannot do anything because Islamic militants and extremists are very powerful and they are in every department. It’s on the record that these Islamic militants and extremists have passed resolutions against Christians whom are even charged under false blasphemy cases would be killed. Government of Pakistan cannot take any action against them over 700 cases of forceful conversion to Islam are registered annually in Pakistan today. The report entitled‘Monitoring Human Rights-2011’ Many Christian women in Pakistan are forcefully married off to Muslims and forced to change their faith. In 2011, the Asian Human Rights Commission There is nothing through which the Christians could influence the Muslim majority. Whatever the Christians had (educational institutions, agricultural land, the services in all department industries of government) were taken over by the Bhutto Government in 1972. The Bhutto Government, General Zia-ul-Haque, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have done almost their best to do nothing for the betterment of Christians for their socio-economic, educational development. Rather they (governments) have played a very important role to use all the legalized, consitutionalized methods to crush, eliminate the Christianity from the land of Pakistan. The Christian money in the shape of grants, aids under different packets from the western world have been used for the destruction of Christians in Pakistan. The whole Christian community is under the great danger of blasphemy laws. All the pastors, clergies, evangelists, social and human rights activist, Christian politicians, and all other Christian leaders are under the severe target of Muslim extremists, terrorists and other Muslim hard-liners. Even police authorities are chasing the Christian leaders how they could be brought under the implications, especially those Christians religious ministers, human rights activists who show special concern to the Christian victims, their life and properties, families and interest are under great danger. The names of some of the Christians clergies, social-human rights activists who are being threatened time to time by the Muslim terrorists, extremists and even by police are being described.