HYDERABAD (UCAN): Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, said that the country’s new national census under-counted the number of Christians to avoid giving them certain benefits. He said that while it showed that the number of Christians has grown, but it does not reflect actuality.
“The census shows Christians make up 1.37 per cent” of Pakistan’s 241 million people, but they “must be around three to four per cent,” he said on July 23.
Bishop Shukardin said the actual number of Christians would make them the largest minority in the country, a position now held by Hindus, who make up 1.61 per cent of the population.
The bishop explained that actual numbers “are not recognised to avoid giving us the largest minority title that comes with facilities like ministerial berths” in the government.
The results of the new national census, the first digital population and housing census conducted last year, were released on July 18.
The census data showed that the number of Christians grew to 3.30 million in 2023 from 2.67 million in 2017 when the last census was conducted.
The number of Christians has increased because more people came forward to register this time, said Peter Jacob, executive director of the Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice [CSJ], which works among marginalised people.
A Catholic priest in Karachi explained that the country’s orthodox Muslims consider apostasy [renouncing one’s faith] as blasphemy, which can be punished with a death sentence in the country. “This makes it difficult for new converts to declare their faith,” said the priest, who requested not to be named.
For a third consecutive headcount since 1998, Hindus in Pakistan bagged the largest minority title. They now account for 1.61 per cent of the population in the census that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics conducted.
Christian leaders say they number more than Hindus and Sikhs. However, non-Christian religious minorities enjoy socio-political prominence with ministerial berths and better job and educational opportunities for their young people, they said.
