Showing intent but not the will

Honourable members of the Sindh Assembly have once again expressed concern over the rising cases of kidnappings and forced conversion especially those involving minor girls from the Hindu community. A resolution adopted unanimously by the House on Tuesday calls upon the provincial government “to take notice of the recent surge of kidnapping of girls from various districts of Sindh and take steps to arrest the culprits and given them exemplary punishment and stop forced conversions.”

Unless playing to the galleries, it is ironical to see and understand who is asking whom to help resolve the issue. Majority of the honourable members who endorsed the resolution — moved by GDA’s Nand Kumar Goklani — obviously belonged to the ruling PPP whose leadership manages affairs of the Sindh government. They have been the undisputed political overlords of the province for the last many years. Who is stopping them from taking steps to control and eliminate this menace of minor girls’ kidnappings and conversions?

Way back in November 2016, Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a law — Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill 2015 — to address this issue that keeps on damaging the image of Pakistan the world over on account of rights and freedom of minorities. But it was Asif Ali Zardari, who trying to appease the leadership of religio-political parties, directed the Sindh government to tell the then governor not to give his consent to the bill. This is how the law was killed before it could be enacted. While introducing his resolution, Goklani not only recalled this background, but also reminded the honourable members of the House and the Sindh government that he — while taking care of the objections raised by the leadership of the religio-political parties — had submitted another draft bill which is pending with the secretariat and is yet to be presented before the House for debate and passage. Is it not a sad tale of the lack of seriousness on the part of the PPP leadership and the Sindh government?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2019.

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