Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Countries

Pakistan

Also Known As Pakistani
Asia

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Pakistan is an Islamic republic with a large Sunni majority and a significant Shia minority, and its territory holds major sites for both Islamic Sufi devotion, including the shrine of Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore, and much older traditions, since the region was also home to the Indus Valley civilization and later to significant Buddhist activity under the Gandharan kingdoms, whose sculpture fused Greek and Buddhist artistic forms. The small Ahmadi community, which considers itself Muslim, has been constitutionally excluded from that designation since 1974 and faces documented legal restriction and social persecution, a matter the atlas records as attributable and ongoing. Hindu, Christian and Sikh minorities also live in Pakistan, the last with particular significance since Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak, was born in what is now Pakistani Punjab. Sufi shrine culture remains a widely practiced devotional form across the country, distinct from more scripturalist reform movements also active there.

Facts
Law and State
Establishment Status
Established 3
Article 2 of Pakistan's constitution declares Islam the State religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; a 1974 constitutional amendment separately declared Ahmadi Muslims non-Muslims for legal purposes.
State Funding MechanismSourced to the subject's own account
Pakistan funds an Islamic charitable channel by compelling it from bank deposits. Under the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance 1980, scheduled banks automatically deduct 2.5 percent zakat from eligible savings and term deposits above the nisab threshold on the first day of Ramadan each year, unless the account holder has filed a declared exemption, and remit it to the Central Zakat Account held at the State Bank of Pakistan for distribution through provincial and district Zakat committees, a state administered religious levy rather than a voluntary one for Sunni Muslim account holders. 4
Apostasy or Blasphemy Law
A 1974 constitutional amendment and a 1984 ordinance declare Ahmadi Muslims non-Muslims for legal purposes and criminalise their use of Islamic terminology and religious practice; blasphemy laws expanded in the 1980s prescribe severe penalties, including death. 3
Registration or Recognition Regime
Article 2 of the constitution makes Islam the state religion, and Article 2A subjects every other provision, fundamental rights included, to the Objective Resolution's Islamic injunctions. The Second Amendment of 1974 declared members of the Ahmadiyya movement constitutionally non-Muslim, and Ordinance XX of 1984 made it a crime for an Ahmadi to call their place of worship a mosque, use the Islamic call to prayer, or otherwise represent their faith as Islam. Religious organizations generally register as societies or nonprofits under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 or the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies Ordinance of 1961; marriage registration for religious minorities has developed unevenly and by province, with dedicated Hindu marriage legislation only since 2016 and Christian marriage registration still handled inconsistently. 3
Ban or Official Watchlist
The Secretary of State designated Pakistan a Country of Particular Concern on 29 December 2023, one of twelve states named in that round, under the International Religious Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom. 3
Concordat Basis
Pakistan has no concordat with the Holy See. Article 2 of the 1973 Constitution declares "Islam shall be the State religion of Pakistan," reinforced by Article 227's bar on legislation repugnant to Islamic injunctions and the Council of Islamic Ideology it created, the country's own constitutional relationship to religion. 5
Demographics
Religious Composition
About 96% Muslim (roughly 85-90% Sunni, 10-15% Shia); small Hindu, Christian, Ahmadi and Sikh minorities (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1
Geography
Latitude
30.4 degrees north 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Longitude
69.3 degrees east 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Government
Capital
Islamabad 2
Government Type
federal parliamentary republic 2
Sovereignty Status
Sovereign UN member state 2
Established Year
1947 2
14 August 1947 (from British India)
Status
Legal Status
A 1974 constitutional amendment and 1984 ordinance declare Ahmadi Muslims non-Muslims for legal purposes and criminalize their use of Islamic terminology and practice; blasphemy laws expanded in the 1980s prescribe severe penalties, including death, for offenses against Islam. 3
Location
Location of Pakistan Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
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Religion and History in Pakistan

Pakistan is overwhelmingly Muslim, around 96 percent per Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, split roughly 85 to 90 percent Sunni and 10 to 15 percent Shia, with small Hindu, Christian, Ahmadi and Sikh minorities. Pakistan was created in 1947 through the partition of British India specifically as a homeland for South Asian Muslims, a movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the All-India Muslim League, and partition triggered one of history's largest mass migrations along with communal violence that killed an estimated one to two million people and displaced roughly fifteen million as Hindus and Sikhs moved to India and Muslims moved to the new state of Pakistan.

Lahore and the wider Punjab region hold major Sikh and Sufi religious heritage, including Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak's birthplace at Nankana Sahib, now a significant pilgrimage site for Sikhs traveling from India under special visa arrangements, and shrines of major Sufi saints such as Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore, whose Sufi shrine culture remains central to popular devotional practice across the country despite pressure from more scripturalist reform movements. Sindh province carries its own strong Sufi devotional current, centered on shrines such as that of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan Sharif, where an annual urs festival draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims for ecstatic dhamaal drumming and dance, a popular Islam that scripturalist reform movements have periodically targeted, including a 2017 suicide bombing at the shrine that killed dozens of devotees.

Blasphemy Law and the Status of the Ahmadi Minority

Pakistan's blasphemy laws, expanded significantly under military ruler Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization program in the 1980s, prescribe severe penalties including death for insulting Islam, the Quran or the Prophet Muhammad, and though no judicial execution has been carried out under these provisions, accusations have repeatedly triggered mob violence, extrajudicial killings of accused individuals and assassinations of officials who called for reform, most notably the 2011 killing of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer by his own bodyguard over his criticism of the law.

A 1974 constitutional amendment declared Ahmadi Muslims, who consider their nineteenth-century founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad a prophet, to be non-Muslims for legal purposes, a status a 1984 ordinance extended by criminalizing Ahmadis' use of Islamic terminology and practice that resembles Muslim worship, including referring to their places of worship as mosques; Ahmadis face frequent violence, including a 2010 attack on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore that killed dozens of worshippers during Friday prayers.

Hindu and Christian minorities, concentrated respectively in Sindh province and parts of Punjab, report frequent blasphemy accusations, forced conversion allegations involving minor girls, and demolition or seizure of temples and churches, issues the US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report has documented in successive years.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Pakistan directly: "fragment, India, Jammu and Kashmir, or Pakistan, 6th to 7th century, showing Vishnu's man-lion avatar Narasimha slaying the evil king Hiranyakashipu."

This source names Pakistan directly: "profit private healthcare system in Pakistan, and 14 million people cared for annually across the wider AKDN Health network."

Source Aga Khan Health Services (AKDN Official Agency Page)Aga Khan Development Network

This source names Pakistan directly: "article on the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, community edited."

Source Ahmadiyya in Pakistan (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The shrine of Hinglaj Mata, counted among the Shakti Peethas, lies in the Balochistan desert behind this coast.

Source The Indian OceanMichael Pearson

This source names Pakistan directly: "7th century, from the Swat Valley of Pakistan, showing Avalokiteshvara in his Padmapani, lotus-bearing, form."

This source names Pakistan directly: "and copper, 7th century, Swat Valley, Pakistan, Harris Brisbane Dick and Fletcher Funds, 1974, a Met highlight object."

This source names Pakistan directly: "from ancient Gandhara, present-day Pakistan, Kushan period, circa 2nd century, showing the birth of Siddhartha Gautama."

This source names Pakistan directly: "from ancient Gandhara, present-day Pakistan, Kushan period, circa 2nd century."

This source names Pakistan directly: "legal document, the actual text of Pakistan's constitutional amendment declaring members of the Ahmadiyya community to be non-Muslim for purposes of Pakistani law, passed by the National Assembly of..."

Source Constitution (Second Amendment) Act, 1974 (Pakistan)National Assembly of Pakistan

This source names Pakistan directly: "vulture population decline in Pakistan, published in one of the most rigorously reviewed scientific journals in the world."

Islam, Religions

About 96% Muslim, roughly 85 to 90% Sunni and 10 to 15% Shia.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

This source names Pakistan directly: "people, most concentrated in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq)."

This source names Pakistan directly: "of more than 600,000 copies outside Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent."

Source Mustt Mustt (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Pakistan directly: "13, 1948 in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Pakistan, and died August 16, 1997 in London, was a Pakistani vocalist and the most internationally celebrated performer of qawwali, the Sufi devotional music..."

This source names Pakistan directly: "of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, reinstated 2002 and shown here as revised through 2018, in full English translation by the Constitute Project."

Partition of India, Wars & Conflicts

Pakistan was created as the partition's Muslim-majority successor state, carved from British India's northwestern and northeastern Muslim-majority provinces.

Source Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, The Partition of India (2009)Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh

This source names Pakistan directly: "Wikipedia's article on Sikhs in Pakistan, community-edited."

Source Sikhs In Pakistan (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Pakistan directly: "An umbrella movement of Pakistan-based militant factions formed in 2007, distinct from but allied with the Afghan Taliban."

This source names Pakistan directly: "article on Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, a continuously edited tertiary source with no fixed publication year, accessed 2026-08-14."

Source Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Pakistan directly: "on the Ahmadi refugee crisis outside Pakistan, describing thousands of Ahmadi Muslims who have fled state-sponsored persecution in Pakistan and are stranded, often for five to ten years, in..."

Source The Ahmadi Muslim Refugee Crisis (APPG Ahmadiyya Muslim Community)All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

This source names Pakistan directly: "The amendment the National Assembly of Pakistan passed unanimously on 7 September 1974, under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, inserting a new Article 260(3) that supplies a formal legal..."

Source Constitution (Second Amendment) Act, 1974 (Pakistan)National Assembly of Pakistan

This source names Pakistan directly: "birthplace in present day Punjab, Pakistan, draws thousands of Sikh pilgrims from India and around the world each year, most heavily around Gurpurb, the anniversary of Guru Nanak's birth."

This source names Pakistan directly: "Rashid, an American lawyer and writer, was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 1982 and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1987."

This source names Pakistan directly: "Georgia, India, the Netherlands, Pakistan and the United States, with objectives spanning poverty relief, education, sickness relief and the provision of burial grounds for the faith."

Source The World Zoroastrian Organisation Ltd: Charity Commission Filed Accounts, Year Ended 31 December 2024The World Zoroastrian Organisation Ltd (trustees' annual report and accounts, filed with the Charity Commission)

This source names Pakistan directly: "Bank Limited explainer describes Pakistan's Zakat and Ushr Ordinance 1980, under which scheduled banks automatically deduct 2.5 percent zakat from eligible savings and term deposits above the nisab..."

Conducted

Contains

Kartarpur, Cities

The Kartarpur where Guru Nanak settled is in Punjab, Pakistan, close to the Indian border.

Lahore, Cities

Originated Here

Punjabis, Cultures
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Spread Events Here

Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyView the Source
3. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source
4. Zakat on Bank Deposits in Pakistan: Rates, Nisab and ABL Deductions (Allied Bank Limited)
Allied Bank LimitedView the Source
5. Pakistan 1973 (reinst. 2002, rev. 2018) Constitution (Constitute Project)
Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Constitute ProjectView the Source
The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source
Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024Originated Here: PunjabisView the Source
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