Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether the Foreign Secretary has made recent representations to the Government of Pakistan on protecting the human rights of minorities in that country.

The UK remains deeply concerned by the mistreatment and discrimination faced by marginalised religious communities in Pakistan. We regularly raise the issue at a senior level with the Pakistani Government. The former Foreign Secretary raised the persecution of religious communities with Prime Minister Kakar on 25 September. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for South Asia, wrote to Foreign Minister Jilani on this issue on 21 August. Lord Ahmad also raised the desecration of Ahmadi Muslim graves and mosques in a meeting with Foreign Minister Jilani on 13 September and in a letter of 5 October.