Irreligion in Pakistan


and atheism are present among a minority of mainly young people in Pakistan.
In 2005, 1% of those who participated in the poll were atheist and by 2012, the figure rose to 2% according to the Gallup Poll.
Atheists in Pakistan face discrimination, persecution and prejudice in society. Pakistan is reported by some sources to be among the seven countries where atheism can attract capital punishment, but according to the Library of Congress of the United States, "there is no specific statutory law that criminalizes apostasy in Pakistan." On the other hand, the Pakistani government can impose the death penalty for blasphemy.
In 2012, Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan was founded by Fauzia Ilyas. It was the first public atheist and non-religious organisation in a country with Islam as its state religion.
Pakistani blogger Ayaz Nizami, the Vice President of Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Pakistan. and founder of the website realisticapproach.org, an Urdu website about atheism, is currently detained under the charges of blasphemy and could face the death penalty. This happened shortly after former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif supported a crackdown on blasphemous material posted on social media and described blasphemy as an "unpardonable offence" in March 2017.

Notable non-religious Pakistanis