Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Pakistani counterpart on the abduction, rape, forced conversion and marriage of girls who belong to minority religions.

The UK Government strongly condemns the abduction, rape, forced conversion and forced marriage of women and girls from religious minorities in Pakistan. We regularly raise our concerns on these issues with the Government of Pakistan. The Minister for South Asia raised our concerns about child, early and forced marriage and forced conversion of women and girls from minority religious communities, with Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights, Dr Shireen Mazari, on 19 October. He raised our concerns about human rights, including Freedom of Religion or Belief, with Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights on 16 November and with Pakistan's Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for the Interior, Shahzad Akbar, on 7 December.