KARACHI: The Sindh Hindus Marriage Bill, 2016, which was taken into consideration after discussion by over a dozen lawmakers, was passed unanimously after dropping the word ‘Buddhist’ and clause 8, seeking penalty for failing to get the marriage registered within 45 days with the relevant municipal authority.

Highlighting the objectives of the bill, senior minister Nisar Khuhro, who had piloted it, said there was no provision for compulsory registration of marriages among Hindus and other non-Muslim communities, and in the absence of marriage documents members of those communities had been facing a lot of problems in getting national identity cards and passports.

Under this bill a mechanism has been provided for registering marriages of Hindus at the union council/ward or any other municipal authority on the pattern of registration of Muslim marriages. The minimum age of marriages has been fixed as 18 years. Parties to the marriage will give their consent with at least two witnesses present at the time of solemnising the marriage within the customary rites and ceremonies of either party to the marriage.

This law would have retrospective effect for the purpose of validation and registration of the marriages before the commencement of this bill. In the schedule ‘A’ of the this law, certification of marriage had also been included.

During the discussion, both Muslim and non-Muslim lawmakers across the floor praised the bill pointing out no such law had existed since the establishment of Pakistan.

Earlier responding to the point of order of leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan about the fatal traffic accident at the Tando Jam railway crossing, local government minister Jam Khan Shoro regretted over the incident and told the house that the federal government despite the resolution on the subject had failed to install gates on the railway crossings. However, to save the lives of people the Sindh government had chalked out a scheme to build 44 gates on such railway crossings in Sindh and if the federal government did not provide funds, the Sindh government would itself build the gates by next year.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016