HYDERABAD: Speakers at a consultation programme on ‘Status of religious minorities’ rights in Sindh vis-a-vis forced conversion’ have called for implementation of the apex court’s verdict authored by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani to deal with issues of protection of religious minorities.
The programme was organised by the special task force of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in a local hotel on Monday. It was chaired by HRCP co-chairperson Uzma Noorani.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) MPA Rashid Khilji, Tahira Habib, Krishan Sharma, M. Parkash and others participated in the discussion.
They called for passage of the ‘Protection of Minorities Rights bill’ tabled by MPA Nand Lal and aimed at checking forced conversion in Sindh.
The speakers said that under Islamic parties’ pressure, it had become necessary to amend it as they believed the bill initially passed was repugnant to teachings of Islam. Since then it was pending before the elected house.
They noted that in the original bill, the minimum age of a Hindu woman willing to convert to Islam was fixed at 18 years but Islamic parties had opposed it.
They claimed that [in the recent past] there had been “an alarming rise in cases of forced conversion in Sindh”. They said mainstream political parties should play a proactive role to help check the trend.
They felt that in view of the situation, dangerous trends were being set and it could give rise to extremism and make religious minorities insecure. They said that it was the state which should take responsibility of dealing with cases of free-will [marriages] instead of leaving it up to caretakers of shrines.
They referred to Justice Tassaduq Jillani’s detailed judgement in June 2014, and said that it had given a set of guidelines in respect of religious minorities’ issues, including forced conversion. They maintained that a task force was to be appointed in line with this judgement.
MPA Khilji said that his party supported religious minorities as far as their fundamental rights were concerned.
He said that mainstream parties, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Awami National Party (ANP) should come forward in this regard.
A documentary on Kiran Meghwar’s “forced conversion” was also screened during the programme to highlight the issue.
Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2018
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