I have practised law in Lahore since 1982, first before the lower courts and, since 1996, before the Lahore High Court. In those years I have watched many Christian families walk into a courtroom with no one beside them. The accuser has a lawyer, the state has a prosecutor, and the Christian labourer or schoolteacher has nobody. That is why I write this first statement, and why I serve today as the national Patron in Chief of Christian lawyers in Pakistan.
Pakistani Christians are a small community, and most of our people are poor. Many work in brick kilns, in sanitation and in fields. When trouble comes, whether a blasphemy accusation, an abducted daughter, a land dispute or a bonded labour claim, the family has neither the money for a lawyer nor the knowledge of where to find one. A lawyer who does not know the community will often advise the family to settle, to leave, or to stay silent.
Why the lawyer’s faith matters
I do not say that only a Christian can defend a Christian. Honourable Muslim colleagues at the Lahore bar have stood with our people, and I thank God for them. But Christian lawyers in Pakistan bring something a persecuted family needs. They understand the pressure, because they have felt it. They are less likely to abandon the case when threats begin. And they fear God more than men, which is the only fear that holds a man steady when a crowd gathers outside the court.
The Constitution of Pakistan promises every citizen equality before the law and the freedom to profess and practise his religion. Those promises are not charity; they are the law of the land, and a lawyer’s work is to hold the state to them, calmly and in the proper forum. Sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code are easily misused. A family accused under them needs an advocate who will challenge the FIR, seek bail and insist on evidence rather than rumour.
What Christian advocates in Pakistan must do
Pakistani Christian lawyers are few. That is why in 2020 I gathered a group of born-again, Spirit-filled lawyers in Lahore and founded Christian Lawyers Alliance Pakistan (CLAP), so that no Christian in Pakistan would stand before a court alone. The Alliance gives free legal aid to persecuted Christians and trains young Christian advocates in Pakistan from poor families. You can read about our work at clap.com.pk.
Proverbs 31:8 tells us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. For a lawyer that is not a sentiment; it is a job description. I ask church leaders to know the name of a Christian lawyer before the day they need one, and I ask young believers studying law to consider that their profession may be a calling.
— Founding Patron in Chief Advocate Soba Sorya, Senior Advocate High Court, Christian Lawyers Alliance Pakistan (CLAP)
