REFERENCE your editorial ‘Conversion of a minor’ (June 19). It has many paradoxes.

The editorial begins sensibly by highlighting the issue but goes on to say: “Certainly, there are instances of individuals from minority communities – almost always girls and women – who have converted voluntarily, and that is their right”.

When the editorial writer has already said that it is a punishable offence to convert minors, how can he write this when most of the girls converted are minor?

I was expecting the editorial to single out one of the most important pieces of legislations: the Sindh Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill, 2016. It was tabled by the PML-F’s Nand Kumar and Khatu Mal Jeewan, but it was rolled back by the PPP government owing to pressure from religious parties.

To the further dismay of the Hindu community, the editorial says: “Pakistan’s social structures are such as to make it not inconceivable that Hindu girls belonging to the marginalised and impoverished ‘scheduled castes’ are sometimes drawn to the prospect of improving their lot in life by converting to the majority faith.

This bitter reality only exacerbates the insecurities of minority communities who fear losing their younger generation as well as their own heritage in the process”. This is perhaps the same argument used by those who forcefully convert them.

This paper must know that there are politically-motivated religious forces in Sindh who are making the life of minorities difficult in Pakistan.

Gohar Ali Memon

Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2017