In the small village of Pancho Baig, Kotla Sheikhupura, Punjab, lived Sharif Masih — a Christian labourer who worked tirelessly to provide for his wife Nazia and their six children. Five years ago, crushed by poverty and unable to feed his family, Sharif made the most painful decision of his life: he sent his young son Jameel Masih, then still a young child and now just 14 or 15 years old, to work and live with local wealthy landlord Muhammad Boota Bajwa. In exchange for the boy’s labour, the landlord agreed to supply the family with a yearly quota of wheat — enough, they hoped, to keep starvation at bay. Sharif continued to visit his son every week, watching him from a distance, holding onto the hope that the arrangement was temporary.

That hope was shattered on the evening of February 22, 2026.

Sharif Masih no longer stands alone. Human rights organisation HARDS has stepped forward to champion the case, vowing to do everything in its power to ensure the safe recovery of Jameel and justice for his family.

The case of Jameel Masih is not an isolated one. It sits within a deeply troubling pattern of vulnerability faced by religious minorities in Pakistan’s rural Punjab — where poverty, feudal power structures, and a lack of enforcement of child protection laws combine to leave families like the Masihs with almost no recourse. For Sharif and Nazia, the battle to find their son has only just begun. But with HARDS committed to pursuing justice at every level — from the Lahore High Court to the International Court of Justice if necessary — there is, for the first time in days, a spark of hope.