Law to stop forced conversion on the cards
By: Ramzan Chandio
KARACHI: Following the hue and cry of injustices and Hindus’ migration to India, the Sindh government has decided to make law to stop the forced conversion of religion of Hindu girls. The decision was taken at a meeting jointly chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and President Zardari’s sister MNA Faryal Talpur at the CM Secretariat on Wednesday.
It reviewed the situation after reports of migration of Hindus’ to India following the injustices and forced conversion of religion of Hindu girls. The meeting was attended by others including representatives of the Hindus Penchaet, MNAs, MPAs and Ministers belong to Hindu community, chief of President’s federal committee on minority’s affairs federal minister Maula Bux Chandio, MNA Aijaz Jakhrani, IG Police Sindh, and others. The meeting decided to implement on 5pc job quota reserved for the minorities with letter and spirit, so that sense of deprivation prevails among the Hindu population.
The chief minister also announced a package of Rs50 million for the welfare of Hindu community of Jacobabad district, which would be spent on the uplift schemes specifically for the Hindus, repair and maintenance of the worship places of the minorities.The Hindu Penchaet leaders and minorities’ elected representatives complained about the increased incidents of kidnapping and robberies in which only Hindus were being targeted in Sindh.
They also complained that after kidnapping incidents, the police do not lodge FIR of crime and police take less interest to recover the kidnapped persons.On the complaints of Hindus’ representatives, the CM directed the police to ensure implementation of 5 per cent job quota for minorities in the police department, besides prompt efforts be made to cooperate with the Hindus and recover the kidnapped persons.Qaim also directed the government departments and ministers to pay attention to resolve the minorities’ issues in their constituencies in the province.
PPP MPA Pitamber Sehwani, who was elected member of Sindh Assembly on reserved seats for minorities, told TheNation that the meeting took a decision that provincial government will table a bill to make legislation with an objective to stop forced conversion of religion of the Hindu girls. PPP MPA, who has been vocal on the minorities’ issues in Sindh Assembly, further said that same laws already existed in Tamil Nadu state of India, Srilanka and other parts of the world to stop forced conversion of the religion.
Sehwani added that the CM and Faryal Talpur accepted the occurrences of injustices with Hindus such as their kidnappings, robberies and forced conversions of religion of Hindu girls being happened in the province. He further said that the representatives of the Hindus raised the issue of increased incidents of kidnappings of Hindus in the province. Moreover, police do not lodge FIR after kidnappings.
On the complaints, the chief minister assured the Hindus’ representatives that directives being issued to all SSPs of the districts to recover all the kidnapped Hindus and lodge FIR after occurrence of the crime.When contacted, another minority MPA Hargan Das Ahoja of MQM who participated in the meeting told TheNation that he was not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. According to MQM’s MPA, no decision was taken to make legislation to stop the forced conversion of religion of Hindu girls.
Later, talking to the media persons at a Iftar dinner hosted by PPP’s Senator Dr Karim Khawaja in his honour, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah claimed that targeted killings has been controlled in the city, terming the only incidents of the killings occurring which is based on the old enmities and personal feuds. He said that overall law and order situation in the city was satisfied. To another query, Qaim said that it was good that core committee of PPP and MQM had developed 80 per cent consensus on draft of new law of local government, hoping the remaining issues would be resolved amicably. Shah said that there was no financial crisis in the province. However, he admitted that funds in Sindh’s share of NFC awards were released late from the federal government.
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