Who failed Ravita Meghwar?

Protection of Minorities Bill failed to be passed into law despite being approved by Sindh Assembly members

The issue of forced conversions of members of minority communities in Pakistan and our inability to prevent such incidents from happening repeatedly signifies a vital policy gap. A disconnect in the laws and rules of this land that miserably fail to uphold the freedoms assured in the Constitution.

The cognisance of the policy environment holds the key to understanding why certain decisions are made. Moreover, it is essential to fathom the intricacies that shape up the policy environment because it not only influences the public policy process, but is also influenced by it. This makes policy analysis more like fighting a Lernaean Hydra that gives you a number of unaddressed issues for every problem you solve. In order to simplify, we tend to limit the scope of the issue by breaking down the policy environment into economic, social and structural dimensions. Discerning influences along these lines help us identify the direction of political and policymaking activities and predict what decisions are likely to follow in the wake of issues that are pushed through the political system.

The widespread media coverage and intense public response to cases of forced conversion in Sindh prompted the submission of the Protection of Minorities Bill. Despite being unanimously approved by the members of the Sindh Assembly, this bill failed to be passed into law when the governor, Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, returned it to the Sindh Assembly Secretariat without ratifying it. His observations clearly suggesting that the social forces were in play.

Whether or not the proposed legislation addressed the abduction and forced conversion of minors in the province, it was prudent to give in to protests of religious parties. For these baton-wielding and slogan-chanting brigades form the political right here in Pakistan and possess such a sway over the policy environment that no political authority wishes to be at loggerheads with them. Political astuteness lies in sidestepping policy goals in favour of appeasing these extremist sections. Somehow, their tactics work every time and they turn out to be the most effective non-official actors in the policy system of Pakistan. They prop up forces in the name of religiosity and serve agendas that adhere to a narrow definition of social life. They are successful at implementing an order that fails provisions in our constitution safeguarding fundamental rights and freedoms.

Now the problem goes deeper than one issue. It is just like the case of a vortex, a gyrating destructive force that refuels itself through a cyclic action-reward mechanism. As we understand the policy environment determines the policy outcomes and in turn the policy outcomes shape the policy environment. These hardliners have entrapped the nation into a spiral. They exploit personal beliefs to leverage political authorities into making decisions that support their religious fundamentalism.

There are dire social consequences of giving into such exploitation. Avoiding the threat of street agitation at the cost of alienating an already suppressed minority may seem well-judged governance today, but who is to decide what these zealots will pit against next. Every time we cave in, we give them a leeway to fan radicalism in society. We let them breed mindsets that celebrate murderers. We let them publicly denounce women’s rights and carry on with domestic and psychological violence. We become silent partners to their crimes while they infringe the basic rights of minorities.

It is hard to say what will bring to an end this intrusion of religion in politics and policymaking. Will we be able to form policies that break this cycle? Or is it that a social transformation will take place that will negate the concept of a desirable society being promoted by religious parties? Only time will reveal answers to these queries. Until then we know exactly who to blame when a minor is abducted on the pretense of conversion. We know who failed Ravita Meghwar.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2017.

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