Changing religion : Doctor afraid of serving in hometown
The petitioner approached the SHC with the plea to cancel orders regarding her posting as medical officer.
KARACHI:
A female Hindu doctor, who had converted to Islam and solemnised freewill marriage, has once again approached the Sindh High Court with the plea to cancel orders regarding her posting as medical officer in her own hometown. Hafsah told the judges that her last year’s conversion and freewill marriage had infuriated her family and rest of the Hindu community in Jacobabad, who had threatened to kill her. Due to continuous threats, the petitioner is living in Karachi, her lawyer told the judges. But Hafsah was recently appointed as a female medical officer after passing an examination conducted by the Sindh Public Service Commission and her new place of posting is her hometown, where she cannot live and work due to security threats. The lawyer apprehended that the petitioner might be harmed by her family and pleaded to the court to direct the health secretary to assign her posting at some other place. Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, who headed the bench, issued notice to the health ministry and its secretary for August 6.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 2nd, 2013.
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What if she had converted from Islam to Hinduism?
While one can sympathize with Dr. Hafsa's situation, it is very difficult to discern how much of her problem can be attributed to danger to her safety due to conversion, and how much is just the unwillingness of any doctor to be posted away from Karachi to the hinterlands. Jacobabad sees temperatures in high 50s Celsius in summer time and the quality of life is not at par with Karachi. I have seen government officials reluctant to be transferred to even Sukkur from Karachi. Regardless, in this case, it's better for the Courts to err on the side of caution than to subject Dr. Hafsa's life to risk death or injury. In a better world, it would have been so nice to see her serve the medical needs of her own community without any fear of retribution.