Pakistani Christian allowed to list faith on ID after 6-year legal battle

Sufyan Masih, a 24-year-old brick kiln worker, has legally registered as a Christian after a six-year ordeal in Pakistani courts. Alliance Defending Freedom International, or ADF, represented Masih in appeals court and announced the news on Tuesday. Masih’s employer fraudulently registered him as a Muslim, according to the religious freedom advocacy organization. The employer also claimed he had adopted and converted Masih, wrongly withheld Masih’s pay, and tried to prevent him from returning to his family, ADF said.

Masih, like all his family members, is illiterate and does not understand the national identity card form, according to ADF. Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority refused his requests to change his registered religion. ADF lawyers filed a petition on his behalf in 2022 to allow him to change his identity card. In 2024, civil judge Mian Usman Tariq ruled Masih could not change his religious identity, citing Islamic teaching that everyone is Muslim at birth. ADF appealed the case and won in November 2024. Now, Masih has finally received an identity card marking him as Christian.

Are Christians often persecuted in Pakistan? Pakistan ranks eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, which tracks levels of Christian persecution worldwide. Open Doors noted Christians often face mob violence and forced conversion and are typically confined to jobs the local society views as degrading, like working in brick kilns or cleaning sewers.