By Dr. Emanuel Adil Ghouri
It is a bitter reality that the vast majority of Pakistani Christians live in extreme poverty, deprived of the basic necessities of life—health, education, proper housing, food, and employment facilities.
A 2012 survey in Lahore found that the average monthly income of a Christian family of five was US$138, a per capita daily income of 92 cents—well below the poverty line defined by the World Bank. In contrast, the average monthly income of all Pakistanis during the same year was US$255. There are several underlying causes of poverty among Christians, such as the unfair distribution of the country’s economic resources, the monopoly of financial resources by the Muslim majority, the lack of equal opportunities for development, and the blocking of the development process among Christians on the basis of religious prejudice. These include challenges in accessing certain types of employment, which limit economic opportunities. Poverty is not just economic but a multifaceted crisis that stems from deep-rooted religious intolerance, social exclusion, and systemic barriers that prevent Christians from achieving economic success.
Christians in Pakistan are poor due to discrimination that associates them with a lower-caste Dalit background, which limits them to menial, low-wage jobs like cleaning. Even today, most Christians living in large cities are recruited for low-paying jobs in the cleaning sector. Newspaper advertisements for cleaning workers, including those of government agencies, are explicitly reserved for non-Muslims. One Catholic news agency, UCA News, reported that in May 2017 the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation issued a call for 450 sanitation workers, offering contracts that required employees to be non-Muslims and to take this oath: “I swear on my faith that I will only work in the position of a sanitary worker and will not refuse any work.” In the northwestern city of Peshawar, about 80 percent of Christians are involved in sanitation work, just as they are in other urban areas.
Similarly, in rural areas far from the city, many Christians work in brick kilns. Labor in brick kilns is a modern form of slavery. Families—many of them Christians—take out small loans to meet emergencies and then become trapped in a cycle of high interest rates and unfair deductions. With over 20,000 kilns across the country, it is estimated that 3–4 million people work as bricklayers, and a disproportionate number are Christians. Children as young as eight work alongside their parents, their dreams dimmed by the reality of generational debt. Families lose their freedom, dignity, and the ability to hope for something better. Often, these people resort to religious conversion to escape debt.
For 78 years, Pakistani Christian religious leadership and the NGO mafia have received millions of dollars from European and American donor agencies to alleviate poverty and provide Christians with a better standard of living, but no meaningful steps have been taken to change their lives. As a result, they are becoming poorer generation after generation. It is very important to resolve these complex and interrelated issues to improve the socio-economic situation of the Christian community in Pakistan. It is necessary that the closed doors of missionary educational institutions be opened for these poor children; that they be provided with religious education along with secular education; that their daughters be given technical education along with academic education so they can move toward better employment; and that better employment opportunities be created for capable and educated youth. Better employment opportunities should be created for talented and educated youth.
Recently, Pakistan’s Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis obtained a quota of 10,500 jobs annually from the Italian government. Does the church not have access to international institutions to create such facilities for its people—facilities that could lead to a major economic revolution? There is a large number of poorly educated but skilled Christians who manufacture surgical instruments, sports equipment, leather jackets, and other products in their small factories under international-standard conditions. The church can use its resources to give them access to international markets. Instead of spending millions of dollars annually on spiritual gatherings, it can encourage unemployed Christian youth to start businesses by providing small loans.
If the church leadership decides to improve the economic condition of Pakistani Christians, I can confidently say that Christians can become the richest community in Pakistan.
The church should use the Christian institutions under its influence not only for commercial purposes but also for the development and advancement of Christians, because the early missionaries established them to raise the standard of living of Christians. After the establishment of Pakistan, we do not see any significant achievement of the church in expanding these institutions. Similarly, there is no clear role for Christian organizations that collect dollars from around the world in the name of Christians. On the contrary, local Muslim communities, with the help of local donors, are performing excellent services for the betterment of their poor people—the same work that the early missionaries did and that some continue to do today.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan runs a vast network of educational and social welfare institutions, with Hira Schools and Colleges operating as a major project, running more than 215 schools and 10 colleges across the country. Managed by the Hira National Education Foundation since 1997, these institutions provide affordable education from preschool to college level, serving 60,000 students across Pakistan. The group is also working to establish an IT university in Karachi in 2026.
Similarly, Muslim religious scholar Maulana Tahir-ul-Qadri’s party, Awami Tehreek–Minhaj-ul-Quran, is working to educate and train poor Muslims. Minhaj-ul-Quran International (MQI) runs a vast network of educational institutions in Pakistan that are accredited by the HEC, including Minhaj College for Women (MCW) and Aghosh Grammar Schools. This network extends to schools, colleges, and specialized institutions that provide modern education. Minhaj Education Society has a vast educational network with over 572 schools and 42 colleges/IT centers in Pakistan. It also runs 69 cultural and educational centers around the world. This network includes the chartered Minhaj University Lahore.
If groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and Minhaj-ul-Quran can establish colleges and universities in the country, then why can’t church institutions—supported by international donors—establish universities, medical colleges, engineering colleges, and law colleges for Christians in Pakistan? The only difference is that the church has no plan for the development, prosperity, or employment of its people, because its leaders themselves have all the facilities for a better life. Their children pursue higher education abroad, and their properties and businesses are abroad. Educated Christian youth should begin the process of holding them accountable so that their attention can be focused on the problems of poor Christians.
Leave a Reply