In a setback for Hindu and other minority religious communities in Pakistan, the Sindh Governor on Saturday sent back to the provincial Assembly for reconsideration a recently-passed Minorities Bill which criminalises forced conversions in the Muslim-majority country.
The ailing Goveror, Justice (Retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, sent back Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Bill without ratifying it. “Please reconsider the legislation,” Siddiqui wrote to the Sindh Assembly Secretariat while returning the bill.
The Governor observed that the Assembly needs to take note of the letters written by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) parliamentary leader Sardar Ahmed, as well as the protest by religious parties, which either called for the Bill’s withdrawal or proposed amendments to it.
Siddiqui – who took oath as the Governor on November 11 last, replacing Ishrat-ul-Ebad – has been ailing since then and is under treatment and care at his official residence. The Pakistan Hindu Council had earlier expressed concern that if the Bill was amended or abrogated under pressure from extremist religious parties, it will increase the sense of insecurity among non-Muslims.
Minority Hindu lawmaker and the patron-in-chief of the council, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, had cautioned that Pakistan might face isolation on international level if the bill was abrogated as the legislation had addressed growing complaints against increasing incidents of abduction and forced conversion of underage minor Hindu girls.
Vankwani had said that they were not against the conversion of religion as a result of deep study or preaching but their concerns were linked to forced conversions only.
“Why only underage Hindu girls in Sindh are changing religion,” Vankwani said. The private Bill recommends that change of religion not be recognised until a person becomes 18 years old.