Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 6213 12 A New Chapter in the New World In the spring of 2014, “Pastor John,” a Christian minister and pastor of a large church in Pakistan, was sitting at the dinner table with his family in Karachi when four policemen came to the door. The officers said a complaint had been filed against the minister, and he needed to leave with them immediately. Instead of taking Pastor John to a police station for questioning, however, they blindfolded him and drove him to a Muslim cleric, who turned him over to the Taliban. At a secret location, Pastor John was interrogated, brutally kicked, chained to a wall, and beaten with a pipe while he tried, in vain, to defend his innocence and cling to consciousness. Through- out that physical ordeal, he refused to deliver the false confession his torturers demanded—that he had been a spy for the United States and committed blasphemy against Islam. In Pakistan, laws against blasphemy are often used to persecute Christians and other non-Muslims. Pastor John’s greatest crimes, in the eyes of his persecutors, were that he had preached the virtues of Jesus Christ at a recent Easter sermon, and that he had rebaptized a woman who had been born Christian, converted to Islam, and then wished to reconvert back to Christianity. Both actions were denounced by the Taliban as heretical and punishable by death. On the second day of the pastor’s interrogation, his abusers applied mental and emotional tor- ture: he was forced to watch a video of someone being beheaded, while the executioner from the video sat in the room alongside him. The Taliban then presented the terrified minister with a Hobson’s choice: confess and renounce Christianity, or die, after witnessing the execution of his own wife and children. Pastor John made the only choice possible. He was then released to prepare his family for a very public conversion ceremony. A few days later, the minister and his family members fled, avoiding suspicion by leaving their home separately and empty-handed. Pastor John had a US visa and flew to the United States. His wife and three children went into hiding in Pakistan. In September 2014, when Human Rights First—a nonprofit organization based in New York City—circulated a request for pro bono assistance to help Pastor John secure asylum, attorney Narges Kakalia responded. “I’m from Karachi, and have handled many asylum cases. When Human Rights First circulated this case study, the facts hit very close to home for me, and I was determined to help,” Narges said. Sharing a common language helped Narges establish a good working relationship with her client, who spoke little English. “Being able to communicate in Urdu helped Pastor John feel more comfortable in a very alien setting,” Narges said. “I felt so confident with Mintz. Mintz treated me like a family member, and considered my problems as their own problems.” “Pastor John” Pro Bono Client continued