Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment his Department has made of the role of the Pakistan judiciary in protecting persecuted minorities.

The UK does not comment or interfere with judicial processes in Pakistan. They are a matter for the Pakistan judicial system.  However, the UK does regularly engage with the Government of Pakistan to advance key priorities and interests, including on human rights and the rule of law. The former Foreign Secretary met the caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-Ul-Haq Kakar, on the 23rd September, where he raised the importance of protecting the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for South Asia, condemned the violence and discrimination faced by religious minorities in his meeting with Pakistan's caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on 13 September.