Govt opposes law to prevent forced conversions

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) have strongly opposed legislation on forced conversion of religion, sparking an outcry from the Hindu community amid reports that around 1,000 girls are forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan for marriages.
In addition to the reluctance regarding legislation on forced conversion, there is no law allowing the Hindu community to register their marriages with the authorities unlike the Muslim Marriage Act, thus condoning forced marriages with Hindu girls after conversion, a practice predominately carried out in Sindh.
While Pakistan spares no chance to denounce the forced conversion of Muslims in India to the Hindu religion, its own record of safeguarding minority rights is tainted with similar kinds of incidents. The Aurat Foundation reported a couple of months ago that around 1,000 forced conversions of Hindu girls to Islam takes place every year.
A senior joint secretary of the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Wednesday told the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights that the legislation on the forced conversion of religion, drafted by the now-defunct Ministry of Minority Affairs, was opposed by his ministry together with the CII.
They advised the prevailing laws of wrongful use of force may be implemented in the case of forced conversion.MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, who attended the meeting on a special invitation, said neither was there any law on forced conversion nor was there any process of registering Hindu marriages.
This is in contrast with the Muslim Marriage Act that binds every Muslim citizen to register the marriage with the authorities and failing to do so can invoke the punishment of a jail sentence and fine.
The absence of the Hindu Marriage Act is one of the reasons fuelling the rise in forced conversion of Hindu girls to Islam for marriages as we have no evidence to prove the converted girl was already married, Dr Ramesh Kumar said.
A draft Hindu Marriage Act has been pending since January 2014 despite repeated insistence of the Supreme Court, Dr Ramesh Kumar said, but the authorities concerned are indifferent to the plight of the Hindu community.
Senator Aitzaz Ahsan was furious to hear the response of the official of the Ministry of Religious Affairs on shelving the legislation on forced conversion of religion. “What do you mean? Make it a special offence. Bring us the recommendations in the next meeting.”
Commenting on the double standards for Muslims and Hindus on marriage registration, Aitzaz termed it a glaring lacuna that Muslim marriages are registered and not those of the Hindus.
Upset by an inordinate delay in the legislation on marriages, Dr Ramesh Kumar said, “We appealed to all the four provincial assemblies to pass resolutions demanding the passage of this law. The Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies have passed the resolutions; however, the response from Punjab and Sindh is still awaited.”
He termed Sindh the most notorious in terms of persecution of the Hindu community followed by KP and Punjab whereas Balochistan was the best in protecting its minorities.
The committee was further surprised to learn that the Religious Affairs Ministry had not yet read the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on blasphemy issues while hearing the appeal of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of former Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer.
As the ministry was directed to brief the committee about the judgment, the officials were found blank as they started reading out the chronology of the case instead of the salient features of the verdict and recommendations for the government to improve this law to prevent its misuse.