Sindh govt slammed for backtracking on promise to protect minorities

Protesting against a recent case of alleged abduction and forced conversion of a Hindu minor girl, human rights advocates slammed the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Sindh government on Tuesday for shying away from the bill criminalising forced religious conversions and subsequent forced marriages.

The civil society, Hindu activists and members of Sindh’s progressive parties gathered outside the Karachi Press Club under the banner of the Sindh Civil Society Forum to condemn the “kidnapping and forced conversion” of Ravita Meghwar of District Tharparkar.

The demonstrators demanded that the Sindh government ensure the arrests of spiritual leaders Pir Ayub Jan Sirhindi and Mian Mithoo, who were accused of being involved in converting girls from Hinduism to Islam and marrying them off to Muslim men.

Mangla Sharma, a leading activist associated with the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), said cases of abductions, forced conversions and forced marriages of teenaged Hindu girls were on the rise across Sindh.

“Ravita’s marriage has also violated the early child marriages act,” she said. “At the age of 15, she does not even understand her own religion, how can she [willingly] convert to Islam?”

Hindu rights advocate Jesrani Birma said the PPP had returned the forced conversion bill in order to appease religious parties. “Political parties such as the PPP cannot endure pressure from religious parties. Now the Hindu community is demanding that the military intervene to save their daughters.”

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Dr Jaipal Chhabria said the PPP-led Sindh government had failed to protect the minorities, adding that it was high time that the provincial administration be pressurised into providing security to the non-Muslim communities in the province.

Sindh United Party leader Ejaz Sameto and civil society activists Nagham Shaikh, Punhal Sario, Shujauddin Qureshi, Raj Kumar and Najma Mashewari also spoke to the protesters.

On Sunday the PHC had appealed to the Supreme Court to take suo moto action against the increasing kidnappings and forced conversions and marriages of the Hindu community’s underage girls across the province. Criticising the Sindh government during the council’s meeting, PHC Patron-in-chief and Member National Assembly Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said that returning the unanimously passed bill for the protection of minorities was proof that the provincial administration was being held hostage by religious pressure groups.

The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed the Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill 2015 on November 24 last year. Under the bill, anyone found involved in a forced conversion could face a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison along with a fine.

However, ulema upset over the bill met with Dr Abdul Qayyum Soomro, the chief minister’s special assistant on religious affairs, on December 5 and termed it against the basic principles of Islam. They demanded that the bill be withdrawn.

Religious parties in Karachi launched a campaign against the bill to pressurise the Sindh government into repealing it. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl organised a multi-party conference on December 6 at the press club, where the participants claimed that the bill was against the teachings of Islam, the constitution and the Charter of the United Nations.

After reaching a consensus, the religious parties threatened to lay siege to the Sindh Assembly if the legislature did not repeal the law within 15 days. The Jamaat-e-Islami had organised a similar meeting on December 2 at the party’s headquarters in the city.

In a statement issued on December 20, PPP Senator Taj Haider said everyone should support the bill because it was “in accordance with the moral and humanitarian teachings of Islam”.

A week before that, however, the provincial government had caved in and decided to amend the bill, especially the provision that fixed 18 years as the minimum age for converting one’s religion.