SMC No. 1/2014 etc 22 used and frequented by Pakistanis has produced some disturbing, though not unexpected, results. Over 91pc of nearly 600 respondents surveyed claimed to have come across hate speech online and a partial analysis of 30 popular Facebook and Twitter pages and accounts has shown how user comments are usually peppered with some form of hate speech. The names of the targeted groups will also cause little surprise: Shias, Ahmadis, Indians / Hindus, atheists/unbelievers, state institutions, women, gender minorities, Jews and local ethnicities. To be sure, views expressed online do not automatically reflect the views of wider society especially in a country where roughly 10pc of the population is believed to be online. Yet, with the 3G/4G telecommunications revolution now just a matter of weeks or perhaps months, the number of Pakistanis online will certainly climb dramatically and soon. Hate speech online will be disseminated even further as a result. Also while the anonymity of sitting behind a screen tends to coarsen public comments and discourse in the online world internationally, there is a case to be made that the younger, tech-savvy Pakistanis online are taking their cultural, and hate, cues, from a society where such talk is increasingly acceptable currency. . . . . . While not every hateful word can or does lead to violence, there is surely more than just a correlation between the amount of hate speech against and the violence suffered by groups such as the Ahmadis and other religious minorities. With access to the online world about to explode, now is the time for some serious thinking.” It is because of absence of effective State action that despite elaborate textual guarantees for minorities’ rights, empirical realities reflect a mixed bag, rather a dismal state of affairs. 20. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Report, 2013 on sectarian violence makes a sad reading. “In the first few weeks of 2013, sectarian violence claimed the lives of over 200 Hazara Shias in Balochistan. More than 200 sectarian attacks killed 687 people. Seven Ahmadis lost their lives in targeted attacks. In the deadliest attack ever against Pakistan’s Christian citizens, over 100 people were killed in a Peshawar church. A