Pakistani Christian journalist harassed at work, resigns

In another example of religious intolerance in Pakistan, a Christian journalist was harassed by colleagues for her faith and insulted for not having converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim man.

Thirty-eight-year-old Gonila Gill, married to Husnain Jamil, had to resign from Dunya News following the mental torture by her colleagues. She was the only Christian registered with the from the Lahore Press Club.

"People are vile - she says - when they talk rubbish about my faith. However, I will not lose hope and remain steadfast in my religion," Jamil said.

The condition of minorities is deplorable in Pakistan. They have always been mistreated and suffered injustices from fellow civilians and the administration. Pakistan administration has always patronised religious, ethnic, cultural and racial disagreements to further their regime.

In recent times, several cases of forced conversion have come to the fore.

The country has been condemned internationally for cracking down on its minorities.

The authorities have been discriminating against religious minorities, which can be seen in various forms of targeted violence, mass murders, extrajudicial killings, abduction, rapes, forced conversion to Islam among others, making Pakistani Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas and Shias one of the most persecuted minorities in the region.

Recently, Pakistan's record of using unfair means of treatment against the minority communities was exposed after a former legislator of Prime Minister Imran Khan's party sought political asylum in India.

Baldev Kumar, a former MLA of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI party) from Barikot in Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) assembly and his family had come to India last month to seek political asylum.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada had raised the issue of suppression of religious freedom last month by China and Pakistan and slammed the two Asian nations for "persecuting and repressing" their religious minorities.

During the meet on Safety of Religious Minorities here on Thursday, the US, UK and Canada expressed concerns over the increasing, widespread and undue restrictions on religious freedom in the two countries.

In Pakistan, many incidents are regularly reported where Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls are forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men.