Emanuel Sarfraz, a Christian journalist who advocated for minority rights in Pakistani media, died on January 13 in Lahore, Pakistan. He was 56.
A founding member of the Christian Journalists Association of Pakistan (CJAP), Sarfraz helped reshape how the tiny Christian minority participated in Pakistan’s media landscape. He trained Christian journalists and helped them find jobs. At the same time, he established a platform for Christian voices in the Muslim country, where less than 2 percent of the population is Christian.
Sarfraz was also the first Christian journalist to have his own column in an English newspaper, according to his friend Tahir Vicky, a fellow reporter. Sarfraz often wrote about education, gender issues, and incidents targeting Christians.
Since 2020, Sarfraz also served as the general secretary of Lahore YMCA, where he launched new programs from cybersecurity workshops to interfaith conferences. He also established initiatives for Christian women, including a secure female-only hostel and gymnasium in downtown Lahore, that were unprecedented in the country.
Through his leadership positions, Sarfraz sought to strengthen Christian institutions while encouraging believers to engage with the larger society. Friends and loved ones remember Sarfraz as someone who would never miss church on Sundays, who was straightforward in his writing and interactions, and who would not compromise his faith in the newsroom.
Vicky remembered Sarfraz’s advice on how to bring about effective change: “One must stay in the system and bring change; you cannot change the system by staying outside and just talking about it.”
Sarfraz was born in 1968 to a Christian family in Lahore. His father worked as a manager at the Punjab Religious Book Society while his mother managed their home. Sarfraz was the youngest of five children.
He studied humanities at Islamia College before earning master’s degrees in English and international relations. Although he passed Pakistan’s notoriously difficult civil service exam, he chose to pursue journalism instead.
Sarfraz’s passion for journalism was an anomaly in the Christian community, said Asher Sarfraz (no relation), a friend and fellow journalist. “Christians were not very good at writing in English, so nobody entered into this field,” he explained.
Sarfraz’s journalism career began at The Nation, an English-language daily in Lahore. Over two decades, he worked as staff reporter; supervising editor for the publication’s Sunday magazine; and coordinating editor, where he managed the paper’s four publishing sites and three bureaus across the country. He covered major national and international events, including the 2005 Kashmir earthquakes, the 2010 Pakistan floods, and the 2016 US presidential elections.
Because Urdu and English are the official languages in Pakistan, Sarfraz worried that young people were losing the Punjabi language and culture. He often wrote about the topic, including in a 2005 article where he pushed for keeping the Punjabi language and Sufi poetry—part of the Punjabi literary heritage—alive.
In 2019, Sarfraz launched Pakistan’s first education-focused print magazine, Academia, becoming its founding and managing editor. The endeavor allowed him to combine his passion for media, journalism, and education.
As he grew in journalistic acclaim, Sarfraz saw the importance of paving the way and raising up other Christian journalists. In 2021, Sarfraz established CJAP with a group of 120 journalists in print and electronic media.
Whenever he heard of Christian journalists who were struggling financially, Sarfraz would introduce them to others in his network to facilitate job opportunities, freelancer journalist Nasir Jamil said.
Jamil initially only wrote in Punjabi until Sarfraz encouraged him to write articles in English to reach a larger audience, he recalled. The experienced editor even edited some of his initial English articles.
Jamil said his mentor described to him the need for Christians to stay united. “We are a handful of Christian journalists out of the very few educated masses from the tiny total Christian population,” Jamil recalled Sarfraz saying.
Sarfraz also raised issues facing Pakistani Christians on the Christian YouTube channel National News Nama. He and Vicky hosted a biweekly program, “Aaj Emanuel Sarfraz Sahab Ke Saath”(Today with Mr. Emanuel Sarfraz), where Sarfraz explained the rights of the Hindu and Christian minorities, including a mandatory five percent quota for minority students at public colleges.
In February 2020, YMCA Lahore’s board of directors selected Sarfraz as its new general secretary. He initiated a revamp of YMCA programs, focusing on developing the young people’s spiritual growth as well as their practical skills.
He introduced various classes to teach young people computer skills, spoken English, cosmetology, and the uses of artificial intelligence. “He often told me that he wants to introduce everything new through YMCA to keep the youngsters abreast with [what] is trending,” said Azhar Mushtaq, general secretary of the Pakistan Bible Society, Lahore.
Sarfraz also used his position to support Christian athletes. In April 2024, he honored the Sohail sisters—four Christian sisters who had won international competitions in kabaddi, powerlifting, and weightlifting—and made them goodwill ambassadors for the organization. He spoke out about the lack of funding for Christian athletes and pressed government officials to support them.
Sarfraz also played a pivotal role in organizing festivals for both minority and majority communities, such as Diwali, Pakistan’s Independence Day, and Christmas. His wife, Ghazala, noted her husband “strongly believed that social harmony is the key to progress.” He would invite Muslim public figures to his Christmas gathering, his friend Vicky recalled.
Sarfraz also served as the chairman of the Student Christian Movement (SCM) Pakistan—a community that raises awareness on role of minorities in developing countries and encourages students to ask questions about their faith.
In 2023, Sarfraz earned the Ambassador for Peace Award for his work. He had also received acknowledgment from the Punjab government for his work in child protection and welfare, from the Press Information Department Lahore for promoting interfaith harmony, and from the YMCA for exceptional service to children.
At a gathering of Christian and Muslim journalists in Lahore in May 2023, he shared his vision for responsible journalism, emphasizing that Christian journalists should be properly trained and careful with the words they use in their reporting to avoid offending people of other faiths.
“This philosophy of thoughtful engagement while maintaining the Christian identity was a hallmark of his approach,” Ghazala said.
Just few weeks before Sarfraz’s death, Jamil said he received a call from Sarfraz insisting that he and all the other Christian journalists apply for membership at the Lahore Press Club, where Sarfraz had long been a member and even served on its governing body. “He wanted to endorse us,” Jamil said. “He encouraged Christian representation in the Pakistan media institutions.”
Sarfraz is survived by Ghazala, who was recently appointed the first female general secretary of YMCA Lahore, and their two daughters.
The post Died: Emanuel Sarfraz, Pioneering Pakistani Christian Journalist appeared first on Christianity Today.