diff -u b/core/includes/common.inc b/core/includes/common.inc
--- b/core/includes/common.inc
+++ b/core/includes/common.inc
@@ -2326,6 +2326,10 @@
   // Append active class.
   if (($path == current_path() || ($path == '<front>' && drupal_is_front_page())) &&
       (empty($options['language']) || $options['language']->langcode == drupal_container()->get(LANGUAGE_TYPE_URL)->langcode)) {
+    // Only mark the link as active, if the query parameters of the current
+    // request equal the query parameters of the link, since the same request
+    // with different query parameters may yield a completely different page
+    // (e.g., pagers).
     if ($_GET == $options['query']) {
       $options['attributes']['class'][] = 'active';
     }
only in patch2:
unchanged:
--- a/core/includes/pager.inc
+++ b/core/includes/pager.inc
@@ -470,13 +470,7 @@ function theme_pager_link($variables) {
     }
   }
 
-  // @todo l() cannot be used here, since it adds an 'active' class based on the
-  //   path only (which is always the current path for pager links). Apparently,
-  //   none of the pager links is active at any time - but it should still be
-  //   possible to use l() here.
-  // @see http://drupal.org/node/1410574
-  $attributes['href'] = url(current_path(), array('query' => $query));
-  return '<a' . drupal_attributes($attributes) . '>' . check_plain($text) . '</a>';
+  return l($text, current_path(), array('query' => $query, 'attributes' => $attributes));
 }
 
 /**