Sindh Governor returns Bill against forced conversion

IN A setback to Hindu and other minority religious communities in Pakistan, the Sindh Governor Saturday sent back to the provincial assembly for reconsideration a recently passed Minorities Bill which criminalises forced conversions in the Muslimmajority country. The ailing Governor, Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, sent back the 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 said the Assembly needs to take note of the letters written by the Council of Islamic Ideology as well as protests by religious parties.

The Pakistan Hindu Council had earlier expressed concern that if the Bill to protect minorities 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 ARE only underage Hindu girls in Sindh changing religion,” Vankwani, an MNA of the ruling PML N party, said.

The private bill, jointly moved by the ruling PPP and the PML-F lawmakers and unanimously passed by the Assembly on November 24, recommended that change of religion not be recognised until a person becomes 18 years old. It also prescribed severe penalties for forced conversion of religion and said, “Any person who forcibly converts another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a minimum of five years and maximum of life imprisonment and a fine to be paid to the victim.”

Religious parties have rallied against the proposed legislation, calling it against the spirit of Islam and threatening street agitation over it.

AP First responders secure the area outside the Fort Lauderdale-hollywood International Airport after the shooting, Friday.