AK and SK with Wilson Chowdhry and others at the Aid to the Church In need Conference in Parliament 17th November 2015, where Paul Bhatti spoke.
The BPCA have been asked to share news of the country guidance case used as a benchmark for Pakistani Christian asylum cases in English Law. The
legal teams for AK and SK have asked Christians up and down the country to pray for success in the appeal hearing being held today. They have
also challenged supporters to attend the appeal hearing if possible to show solidarity in hope of a more positive result.
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AK and SK are represented by Wimbledon Solicitors and Shivani Jegarajah of Mansfield Chambers and Sarah Pinder of Goldsmith Chambers who issued this press
release:
for permission. The Upper Tribunal published its determination almost a year ago in December 2014 – AK and SK (Christians: risk) Pakistan CG v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014]
UKUT 00569 (IAC) – dismissing the appeals of AK and SK. Permission to appeal was refused by the Upper Tribunal and following the application being
made directly to the Court of Appeal, this was listed by the Court for an oral permission hearing on notice to the SSHD.
to form a real of persecution and that unlike the position of Ahmadis, Christians are in general permitted to practice their faith, by attending church,
participating in religious activities and having their own schools and hospitals. On the specific facts of AK and SK, evangelism was also focused upon
and the Upper Tribunal concluded that someone who seeks to broadcast their faith to strangers so as to encourage them to convert, may find themselves
facing a charge of blasphemy and in that way, evangelical Christians face a greater risk than those Christians who are not publicly active. Specifically
with regards to women, the Upper Tribunal found that like other women in Pakistan, Christian women in general face discrimination and may be at a heightened
risk but again, in the Tribunal’s view, this was not at a sufficient level to amount to persecution and a fact-sensitive approach was crucial to individual
case assessments.
their cases confining their risk assessment to formal activities, which may or may not have been undertaken rather than an assessment of their “self-definition”
and “personal transformation” as Evangelical Christians, which is what was required. An analogy might be made with that of a person’s sexuality and
the Tribunal has avoided making a finding as to the centrality of AK’s and SK’ belief system to their identity.
in the Houses of Parliament on 10-11 November 2015 – ‘The Plight of Minority Religious or Belief Groups in Pakistan and as Refugees: Addressing Current
UK & UNHCR Policy’.”
Wilson Chowdhry of the BPCA said:
“An eventual judgement against the original Home Office decision would force a review of existing policies towards Pakistani Christians. This would improve the success rate of Pak-Christian asylums seekers who currently have a less than 50% chance of success. Let’s hope common sense and fairness wins out. Moreover a legal precedent of this nature would ensure future appeals of poor Home Office decisions would be more favourable”.