Call for early adoption of bill. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: Speakers have expressed concerns over the forced conversion of Hindus in Sindh and the discrimination being meted out to religious minorities in the country.
They were speaking at a panel discussion on the Hindu Marriage Bill at the National Press Club on Thursday. Topics of discussion included the reasons for delays in formulation of Hindu personal laws and controversies surrounding the current draft of the marriage bill.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement Senator Nasreen Jalil, who is chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, said the justice system has to be fair and equal for all the citizens, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or ethnicity.
“The issue of delays in formulating Hindu Marriage Bill is related to other issues, such as forced conversions of girls...[and] after the induction of clause 12.3, Hindus fear that their married women would be kidnapped and presented as Muslim converts in the court of law,” adding that these issues also have to do with the abuse of laws and incorrect implementation.
She also blamed the establishment for poor policymaking, which has led to extremism and terrorism.
“We have seen action against the misuse of loudspeakers, but nothing happened to those who instigated a mob in Jhelum to burn down a factory owned by an Ahmadi,” she said.
She said that people were running from pillar to post, but the police were not registering a case against Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz, despite the fact that he has challenged state institutions and delivered a speeches instigating sectarianism.
“I would request the deletion of clause 12.3 from the draft bill,” she asked Chaudhary Mehmood Bashir Virk, the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice, who was also attending the session.
Virk said that clause 12.3 was misunderstood.
“The clause only says that if either spouse were to convert [to Islam], the other partner has the right to claim divorce,” he said. “We cannot stop willful conversions, but everybody is against forced conversions and this law will not promote that,” he added.
He said Hindus were patriotic Pakistanis and he considered them his comrades.
PML-N legislator Dr Ramesh Vankwani and Chairman Pakistan Hindu Council highlighted that it took around 10 months for the NA body to clear the bill, mainly due to extraordinary debates and discussions on the draft bill.
He called for eradicating extremism from society, which he described as the root cause of terrorism in Pakistan.
Civil society member Kishan Sharma countered the arguments presented by Virk, saying that Hindus fear that clause 12.3 will be used as a tool for forced conversion of kidnapped women.
“We have faced situations where girls as young as 13 were kidnapped, but no one, including the police and the courts, provided justice to the aggrieved families,” Kishan Sharma added.
Pakistan Hindu Council Vice Chairman Hotan Chand Kirmani also spoke.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2016.
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