Christians in Pakistan are protesting a controversial court ruling that upheld the marriage of a 13-year-old Christian girl to a 30-year-old Muslim man, a case widely known as the “Maria’s case”. Source: OSV News.
The girl’s family says she was abducted and forcibly converted.
In response, the Pakistani Government has quietly formed a 37-member national committee – including Catholic and Protestant bishops – to review the case and propose safeguards against forced conversions and marriages.
Officials said committee members have been notified, but a formal announcement “will be issued later”, Akmal Bhatti, a Catholic lawyer and one of the committee members, said.
On March 25, the Federal Constitutional Court validated the Islamic marriage of Maria Shahbaz, 13, from Lahore, to a Muslim man.
Maria’s father had filed a petition in court stating that his daughter was abducted in July 2025 and forcibly converted to Islam.
The ruling sparked backlash, with human rights organisations, Church leaders and politicians warning it could set a dangerous precedent.
Alongside Christian political and human rights groups, Catholic bishops organised protest gatherings to voice their concerns over the verdict.
On April 10, during a protest rally in southern Punjab, Bishop Yousaf Sohan of Multan condemned the forced conversion and marriage of minor girls from minority communities and called for “justice for Maria”.
Earlier, in a pastoral letter dated April 3, Archbishop Khalid Rehmat of Lahore expressed anguish over the decision, calling it “profoundly disturbing” and “unacceptable”.
As head of the country’s largest Catholic diocese, he said the court ruling “represents not only a grave failure of justice in Maria’s case but also sends a dangerous message that undermines the rule of law and weakens protections for vulnerable minority girls across the country”.
Seeking to reassure the Christian community during an Easter gathering in Lahore, Attaullah Tarar, the federal minister for information and broadcasting, promised that the government would address the issue.
Safraz Clement, a Catholic political leader, said that the kidnapping, forced conversion and forced marriage of Christian girls – many of them minors – remain major concerns for non-Muslim citizens.
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Christians protest after Pakistani court says forced marriage fo Christian girl, 13, is legal (By Aftab Alexander Mughal, OSV News)
