In limbo: The lawless unions

Since 1947, no fresh laws have been promulgated for Hindu citizens

ISLAMABAD: At least among religious minorities, Hindus have a sizeable population in Pakistan. Yet there is no existing law to regulate the marriage and divorce of Hindu citizens. Laws pertaining to Vivaha meaning marriage within the Hindu tradition remain in the limbo.

“Pakistan has not enacted any law to regulate the marriage and divorce of its Hindu citizens, though they can opt to get their marriages registered under The Special Marriage Act 1872, but no effective measures have been taken so far to implement this law either,” said a report based on research by Advocate Maroof Mittha by Community World Service- Asia.

The Hindu Jati population in Pakistan, according to estimates, is around 2.9 million strong with a majority living in Sindh where their number is estimated at 2,683,633.

Pakistan, after its inception, re-enacted laws regulating marriage formulated by its colonial rulers. Most of the laws in force today, especially those related to non-Muslims, were promulgated before the 1947 partition. The Muslim family laws were comprehensively revised in 1961 and reforms were brought on by the Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961 and the West Pakistan Family Courts Act, 1964. But negligible progress has been made to update or provide for laws relating to religious minorities.

Among religious minorities of Pakistan, Christians and Parsis have laws regulating their marriage and divorce issues, while other religious communities are governed according to their own customs and personal laws.

Several bills have been introduced in the National Assembly by Dr Darshan and Ramesh Lal in 2014 over the subject, and Ramesh Kumar Vankwani from PML-N introduced the Hindu Marriage Registration Act, 2014 with a focus on registration of marriages and prohibition of forced conversions. But they are still pending. “The dissolution of Hindu marriage is primarily based on the principles of customary usage and judicial separation. Some legal experts treat this judicial separation as absolute dissolution of marriage but variance in customary usage is discriminatory to women,” the report said.

It pointed out that most Pakistani Hindus reside in Sindh, and the province has restricted the minimum age of marriage to 18 years but since this law cannot annul an underage marriage, it fails to serve the objective of checking child marriages.

“Since no marriage registration document is issued by the government, it is almost impossible for Hindus to prove marriages before courts.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2014.