In a rare decision, a Pakistani court ordered issuance of a new government identification card to a woman to acknowledge her conversion to Christianity.
The woman’s attorney, Lazar Allah Rakha, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News that his client renounced Islam in January 2009 and later wed a Christian man.
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The couple have since had five children. The woman has repeatedly requested a new identity card that would show she is a Christian. However, “officials at the National Database and Registration Authority defiantly refused,” Rakha told the news outlet.
Rakha, who is associated with Christian Solidarity International, filed a petition in Lahore High Court on the woman’s behalf. In the filing, Rakha submitted that the woman had converted to Christianity willingly.
‘Mistaken entry’
On July 1, Justice Shahid Karim “ordered NADRA to treat the woman’s case as a ‘mistaken entry’ and issue her a new identity card with Christianity as her faith,” states the news outlet.
NADRA’s policy does not allow for cards to be amended when the holder converts from Islam to another belief, Christian Daily-Morning Star explained. Amendments are issued only when the holder converts from another belief to Islam or when the individual misstates his religion as a result of illiteracy.
The court’s ruling and the new identity card solve some challenges the family had faced through the years, Rakha noted, “including obtaining birth registration certificates for their children and getting them enrolled in school.”
World Watch
Pakistan is No. 8 on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of places most difficult to be a Christian.
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