Speaker discusses the challenges of implementing Hindu marriage law

Sindh is the first and only province in Pakistan to implement legislation on marriage registration and other related issues for Hindus. However, the implementation of the law has always been a challenge that needs to be addressed.

The above proposal is the main key to the consultation on the 2016 Sindhi Hindu Marriage Law organized by the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in cooperation with the Asian Community Service Organization.

According to a statement released, due to insufficient awareness of relevant departments and the public, there have been many such cases, indicating that there is a gap in law enforcement. Because of this, the National Human Rights Commission believes that it is necessary to hold a consultation and develop a mechanism to raise awareness of the law.

The spokesperson during the consultation stated that Pakistan’s largest non-Muslim community should have registered marriages for Hindus living in Pakistan long ago, and this need has been fulfilled with the introduction of the Sindhi Hindu Marriage Law in 2016.

One year after the Sindh Provincial Assembly passed the bill, the National Assembly enacted a similar law, which was extended to Islamabad and other provinces. Earlier, the Hindu population in the province was deprived of marriage rights granted through the 2016 Sindhi Hindu Marriage Law.Initially, the law specifically addressed the registration process, while other issues related to grand marriages, such as under-age marriages, amendments to the law after marriage, and dissolution of marriages

In 2018.

Judge Majida Razvi, Chairman of SHRC, stated that the committee is a statutory body established under the Sindh Human Rights Protection Act of 2011. The bill was notified on April 30, 2013, and the SHRC on May 9, 2013, she explained and added that the committee consists of a chairman, two judicial members, two marine protected areas and Two representatives of civil society.

She said that the committee has the right to take notice of suo motu. Krishan Sharma, a member of the National Lobbying Delegation (NLD), stated that all stakeholders should sit together and have a dialogue on the implementation of the Hindu marriage law.

Rights activist Kapil Dev discussed the prospects of the Sindhi Hindu Marriage Amendment 2018 and its implementation mechanism.He said that Article 25 of the 1973 Constitution stipulated: “All citizens [the] The law and the right to equal protection [the] legal. “

He stated that Article 2A of the Target Resolution also included the protection of the legitimate interests of minorities and their ability to freely practice religion as one of the guiding principles of governance.

The lack of a Hindu personal law was first emphasized in the parliament in the 1970s, but it was not formally legalized due to opposition from Hindu lawmakers. He recalled and added that in 2011, the Fourth National Commission on the State of Human Rights Women raised the issue of 2011 The Hindu Marriage Act of 2016.

He said that Parliament had tried to pass the Hindu Marriage Bill three times in 2008, 2011 and 2012, but they were all unsuccessful. Allegedly, after the landmark decision of the Supreme Court on the rights of religious minorities in 2014, the bench headed by the then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued a notice, Instruct the government to promulgate the law within two weeks. thing.

In 2016, Sindh passed the Sindhi Hindu Marriage Registration Act 2016 because the Pakistan People’s Party government in the province did not want the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in the center to be praised for passing the Hindu marriage law.

In 2017, the Hindu Marriage Law of 2017 passed by the parliament marked a breakthrough, becoming the first legislation involving the personal law of Pakistani Hindus.

In 2018, Sindhi also passed the Sindhi Hindu Marriage Amendment 2018, which is the same as the legislation at the federal level. In 2019, Sindh and Balochistan developed business rules to implement the law; however, it was pointed out that implementation remains the biggest challenge.

Nuzhhat Shirin, chairman of the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, said that the caste system in the Hindu community is also one of the challenges, because it is often observed that the cases of girls who are forced to convert from lower castes are not obtained compared to girls who are forced to convert from upper castes. Emphasize. Caste.

Kalpna Devi, who attended the meeting, said that Sikhs in Punjab opposed the Hindu Marriage Law and passed a separate bill for them.