Ten Facts about Christians in Pakistanadmin2021-04-08T16:19:56+00:00

1. There is anecdotal evidence that St. Thomas the Apostle passed through Taxila (in the Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi) in his journey in India in the first century AD, where he is said to have established the community of Saint Thomas Christians on the Malabar Coast. 
2. A Saint Thomas Christian cross discovered in June 2020 made of marble and weighing more than three tons, about seven by six feet in size, was found in the mountains of Baltistan, in the northern areas of Pakistan. It is estimated to be more than 900 years old, possibly being the earliest physical evidence of a Christian presence in what is now Pakistan. 
3. Pakistan’s first non-Muslim Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court was Justice A. R. Cornelius. Justice A.R. Cornelius was appointed as the Chief Justice of Pakistan in 1960
4. Justice Cornelius was one of the notable Christian figures in the Pakistan Movement, closely collaborating with Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Justice Cornelius was an active activist for the Pakistan Movement and one of the outspoken speakers of the movement, working to rally support for the Pakistan Movement. Justice Cornelius referred himself as a ‘Constitutional Muslim’ who in fact was highly committed to the ideology of Pakistan and strived to follow the laws of Shariah that he found very much in line with the natural laws
5. Justice Cornelius  was the main founding figure of Pakistan cricket after partition. Cornelius was one of the three original vice-Presidents of the Pakistan Cricket Board (then B.C.C.P.) and became Chairman of the working committee, serving until he first relinquished his connection with the Board in early 1953.
6. Joseph Cordeiro, Archbishop of Karachi, became the first Pakistani Cardinal, elevated to the position by Pope Paul VI on 5 March 1973.
7. Pope John Paul II visited Pakistan on 16 February 1981. 
8. For the first time in the country’s history, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, became the federal minister for minorities in 2008. Bhatti was assassinated on 2 March 2011.
9. The Protestant Church of Pakistan is the only one in the world where Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian Christians unite to pray, according to Britannica.com. The denomination was founded in 1970 and is second only to the Catholic Church in number.
10. Christians are split equally in numbers between Catholics and Protestants in Pakistan. The Church of Pakistan is the largest of the Protestant faith. Others include The United Presbyterian Church, Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Pentecostal Church with many other smaller churches, according to a brief created by the Home Office of the government of the United Kingdom.