ISLAMABAD:
A parliamentary penal took up on Friday a proposed bill to regulate marriages of the Hindu community and after getting the nod from the community, it has been sent for ‘more comprehensive drafting’.
The proposed legislation, Hindu Marriage Act, was moved by two Hindu members of the National Assembly, Dr Darshan of the PML-N and Ramesh Lal of the PPP. The National Assembly had referred the bill to its Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights, which took up the matter on Friday.
Dr Darshan told The Express Tribune after the meeting that the bill addresses the two main and longstanding issues of marriage registration and separation of couples. A similar bill is pending before the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.
The secretary of Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights informed the committee that his ministry has obtained a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.
It has conducted a series of consultative sessions with relevant federal ministries and divisions along with the National Commission on the Status of Women and finalise a draft for the Hindu Marriage Bill 2014.
“The said bill is more comprehensive and conforms with constitutional limits. After a detailed discussion, the committee concluded that the bill is in accordance with the feelings of the Hindu community. The committee, in principle, supported the bill, however, it was deferred for further study and more comprehensive drafting,” said the National Assembly Secretariat in a press release.
Headed by Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, the committee also considered the protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2014, moved by Asiya Nasir, another minority MNA from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
She has proposed the amendments to enhance the scope of definitions of harassment, employees and employers in order to protect a wide array of employees and workers in both formal and informal sectors as well as to the students and trainees, from all forms of harassment at work in pursuit of studies and vocational training. The bill was deferred till the next meeting.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2014.
COMMENTS (5)
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India should demand equal rights for Hindus until this law is passed to the satisfaction of the Hindu community. Else it must treat its troublesome minority the same way.
@pakistani. You are right. Such a basic fundamental right is coming to them now in 2014 after 67years. While Muslims in india enjoy their own laws governed by Muslim law board separate from rest of us since decades and decades.
@SayWhat: you are one pessimist.
The media need to preserve such photos because it wont be too long before the only picture we find of a Pakistani-Hindu couple would be through archived images provided by the likes of ET and google.
Now the Indian trolls will definitely start their criticism on the bill.....