Sindh caves in to religious parties’ threats

Agrees to amend law, do away with provision that a person must be 18 years old to change their religion

Succumbing to pressure exerted by religious parties which had threatened to launch a protest movement and lay siege to the provincial assembly building; the Sindh government announced on Friday that it would amend its recently passed law against forced conversions for the protection of minorities and especially do away with its provision that a person must be 18 years old to change their religion.

On November 24, the Sindh Assembly had unanimously passed into law the Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill 2015 - a private bill moved by an opposition lawmaker of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional Nand Kumar. The bill was aimed at preventing forced conversions in the province.

The newly passed law attracted the ire of religious parties, which termed its provisions against the fundamental spirit and tenets of Islam.

The religious parties were of the view that the new law would make it difficult for members of religious minorities to adopt Islam.

They particularly criticised the provision of the law which prescribed the age of 18 as the minimum age for any person to change their religion.

The leaders of these religious parties demanded that the Sindh government should immediately repeal the law and in future refer all such legislation to the Council of Islamic Ideology for vetting so that they were amended in accordance with what they believed were the teachings of Islam.

Provincial parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said in a statement issued on Friday that the Sindh government had decided to amend the law.

The minister in his statement referred to Verse 256 of Surah al-Baqarah of the Holy Quran, according to which no person could be forced to change their religion.  He added that no Muslim could think about passing a law that was against this basic tenet of Islam.

Khuhro said the Sindh Assembly had only declared unlawful the act of contracting marriage below the age of 18 and for this purpose a law had been passed.

He noted that there was no restriction on the age of a person to change their religion and this issue should not be interlinked with the issue of minimum age prescribed for marriage.

He said forced conversions and marriage below the age of 18 was against the Islamic Shariah and the Constitution of Pakistan and as such Sindh Assembly had not passed any law that was against the teachings of Islam.

The minister said the bill passed by the provincial assembly for the protection of minorities had been referred to Sindh governor for his assent.

He added that whether or not the Sindh governor gave his assent to the bill, in both the cases the assembly would review the law for incorporating amendments in it.  He said it was not a matter of prestige for the Sindh government and it was fully ready to review any controversial clause in the law.

Earlier, chief minister’s special assistant on religious affairs Dr Abdul Qayyum Soomro offered to religious parties that the province could establish its own council of Islamic ideology to deal with such issues in the future.