Pakistan Senate Committee Rejects
MINORITY RIGHTS BILL
By Aftab Alexander Mughal
A Senate committee rejected a private bill of minority rights last week. On 24 September, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony rejected the ‘Protection of Rights of Minorities Bill 2020’ with a majority vote. The meeting was presided over by Molana Ghafoor Haideri of the Jammiat Ulema-e-Islam, a religious political party.
About a month ago, Senator Javed Abbasi of Pakistan Muslim Le ague-Nawaz (PML-N), a Muslim by faith, tabled a bill in the Senate, the upper house of the Parliament, for the protection of non-Muslim minorities in the country. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjirani forwarded the bill to the relevant standing committee to review the bill.
The committee comprised of 10 members of different political parties; Senator Molana Abdel Ghafoor Haideri (Chairperson of the committee) of Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam, Senator Islamuddin Shaikh of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Senator Haji Momin Khan Afridi (Independent), Senator Prof. Sajid Mir of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Senator Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Senator Brig. (R) John Kenneth (Christian by faith) of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Sanator Sirajul Haq of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP), Senator Keshoo Bai (a Hindu) of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Senator Abida Muhammad Azeem (Independent) and Senator Hafiz Abdul Karim (Independent). There are only 2 non-Muslim members of the committee, one Christian and one Hindu.
The drafted bill had recommendations for the protection of the minority groups. One of the recommendations was that there should be strong measures to curb the forced conversion of minority communities. Especially, the marriage of a minor after changing religion should be considered forced action and should result in annulment. The bill proposed that if someone is found guilty then they will face a 7-Year jail sentence and a penalty for Rs.100,000 (about 600 US dollars) over forced conversions (proselytization) of girls from the minority groups. Hindus and Christians have been demanding that the state should place strong measures against the forced conversions of non-Muslim girls (many of whom are still minor), that result in forced marriages. According to the Movement for Solidarity an d Peace, each year around 1,000 Christian and Hindu girls and women are abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and then forcibly married to their abductors in Pakistan.
Some religious parties are against any measures of stopping marriages of minor girls. They say that Hindu and Christian girls convert to Islam of their own free will. Though, human rights organisations refute these claims.
Moreover, the drafted bill proposed for stopping hate speech or maltreatment against minority communities, and ban discriminatory material in school textbooks. The bill suggested that the state would protect the religious symbols of the non-Muslim communities. Federal Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Noorul Haq Qadri told the committee that the government is already working on prevention of the forced conversion of minorities. Some committee members compared the situation of Pakistani minorities with Indian religious minorities and said that minorities in Pakistan have already been granted several rights. Conversely, Senator Kishoo Bai, a Hindu, rejected the conservative members’ views regarding the rights and equality given to minorities in Pakistan.
The issue of forced conversion is so crucial, that the Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and Speaker National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament, Asad Qaiser set up a joint ‘Parliamentary Committee for Protection from Forced Conversion’ on 21 November 2019. Senator Dr. Anwarul Haq Kakar was appointed its chairperson. The committee is scheduled to visit Umerkot, Ghotki and Tharparkar districts in Sindh province from 6 to 9 October where forced conversion cases have rapidly increased. However, the forced conversion cases are happening across the country, especially in Punjab. More than 80 percent Christians live in the Punjab province. In a recent incident, Lahore High Court declared on 5 August 2020 that Maria Shahbaz, 14-Year old Christian girl, from Faisalabad, Punjab, was married to a Muslim man, Mohammad Nakash through her free will. However, her family claimed that she was a minor and was kidnaped by Nakash in April this year. Later, she was forcefully converted to Islam before being married.
Pakistan is an Islamic country where non-Muslims (Christian, Hindu, Ahmadi, Sikh, etc.) are considered minorities and make up only 3.53 percent of the total population. Majority of those who belong to the minority group are poor and face increased violence, discrimination and intolerance on a daily basis, due to their faith.
In its annual report 2020, which was issued in April this year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom declared Pakistan a ‘country of particular concern’ because of the treatment of religious minorities in the country.
Aftab Alexander Mughal is the Executive Editor of Minority Concern of Pakistan and former National Executive Secretary of the Justice and Peace Commission of Pakistan. As a journalist, he has been writing on minority rights, democracy, peace, and immigration issues for a couple of international magazines. In 2013, he won an International Award for Women's Issues by ICOM, Geneva.