In Pakistan, Hindu couples can only get a judicial separation. They cannot remarry, said HRCP’s Rochi Ram. PHOTO: EXPRESS
KARACHI:
Vijay Kumar wants to go to Dubai. He’s been trying to fly out to the United Arab Emirates since 2008 but has been unsuccessful.
After his marriage last year, it looks like it’s going to be impossible.
Why?
Because Kumar needs official documentation to show that he was legally wed. Unfortunately for him, there is no such thing for Hindus in Pakistan.
His mother, Manvi Naavi, doesn’t know how to help her son. As she fixes her green sari and bindi, Naavi claims that it is difficult for Hindus to travel anywhere for work purposes especially when an individual is married as most companies and businesses require the legal marriage certificate — or the shadi paraat, the Hindu equivalent of the nikkahnama.
Will you marry me?
Hindu couples have been waiting for the government to sort out a set of marriage registrations rules and regulation.
Despite the fact that there are nine MPAs in the Sindh Assembly representing minorities on reserved seats, nothing has been done. Several drafts on the Hindu marriage act have been presented at the assembly but none have been presented to the federal cabinet for approval.
“After 67 years of independence, almost all religious communities in Pakistan have marriage registration rules and regulation except for the Hindus,” said Pitamber Sewani, a former MPA. Back in 2012, Sewani forwarded a draft for the Hindu marriage registration bill in the Sindh Assembly. It was discarded as soon as the new government took over after the 2013 general elections. “The Hindus of Pakistan are being deprived of their rights,” said Jana Kohli, 57. “There is a lack of laws regarding marriage registrations and other things that come with it.”
While talking to The Express Tribune, she said that her daughter Amita was married in 2002 and four years later her husband left her and her two daughters. “Since 2006, my daughter has been working as a maid to provide food for her children,” she said. “We have no legal document or anything to prove that she was married to the father of her children.”
What now
According to Rochi Ram, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a Hindu man and wife cannot divorce as per their religion but in some cases, custom can allow the couple to divorce as it is given preference over the text. “In Pakistan, however, Hindu couples can only get a judicial separation. They cannot remarry,” he said.
Discussing the marriage registration draft which the Pakistan Hindu Council presented in the federal cabinet last year, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the council’s patron-in-chief, said that a maharaj should be appointed by the government to issue Hindu couples a legal marriage certificate after the ceremony was carried out as per their religion.
“A certificate/ pro forma being issued on the letterhead of the panchayat by a mahraj or pandit is not easily acceptable abroad,” said Amarnath Motumal, the president of the Hindu Panchayat’s Karachi division. “Many countries and organisations don’t accept these certificates and demand a legal Shadi Paraat as per Hindu customs because a certificate/pro forma is not a legal document.” Across the border in India, there is legislation regarding divorce and legal separation for Hindus (Divorce Act, 1956) but not in Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2015.
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