Imran Khan lectures Modi on minorities. He must ban forced conversions in Pakistan first

In the last few weeks, a Sikh, a Hindu and a Christian girl were abducted and forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan in US | PTIofficial/Twitter

In the last few days, three prominent cases of girls from minority communities being forcefully converted to Islam have surfaced in Pakistan. These girls, hailing from Sikh, Hindu and Christian families, have highlighted the deep-rooted problem in the country, which has continued for decades now, prominently in Sindh and Punjab provinces. A problem that is clearly not a priority for the Imran Khan-led government.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is struggling to fulfil his grand campaign promises of making Pakistan a pluralistic society. Is saying that forced conversions are “un-Islamic” enough or can the beleaguered minorities expect a bit more from their PM?

After all, the Pakistan Prime Minister is leading a moral crusade of sorts against the Narendra Modi government’s treatment of Muslims and other minorities in India, especially after the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K.

While pointing fingers at India, Imran Khan can also consider raising voice for the minorities in his own country – that would be a good policy too. Khan did say that he will show Modi how to treat religious minorities.

A textbook conversion case

In the last few weeks, a Sikh girl was allegedly abducted and forced to marry a Muslim man and then sent back to her parents; a 15-year-old Christian student was forcibly converted to Islam; and a Hindu girl studying BBA was taken to a PTI worker’s house and forced to convert and marry a Muslim.

In Pakistan, there is no law banning forced conversions. It is a religious issue with no political party willing to legislate against it, which is the state’s biggest failure.

When Jagjit Kaur, a 16-year-old Sikh girl from Nankana Sahab in Lahore returned home last month, her family heaved a sigh of relief.

Like a textbook conversion case, the girl was kidnapped at gunpoint, forcibly converted, married to a Muslim man and when the family filed a case against the perpetrators, the girl gave a ‘false’ statement in the court under duress.

Jagjit’s kidnapping brought much embarrassment to the Pakistani government because the Indian Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh took up the issue publicly. This made the Pakistan Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar form an inquiry committee to investigate what happened. No one knows what the findings of that committee were or who was reprimanded.

The governor of Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar reached what we know as an ‘amicable’ resolution with the girl’s family and the alleged kidnapper, with the father of the kidnapper in a video saying he won’t press for the girl’s custody. In which civilised country can those who abduct and convert a girl on gunpoint stand tall like this, but in Pakistan.

Waiting for justice

However, this is not the first and definitely not the last time this kind of ‘justice’ has been served. While the parents of a girl from the minority community are only relieved to have her back, everyone moves on to the next case.

Hindu girl Renuka Kumari, who was allegedly abducted from Sukkur in Sindh and forcibly converted by her Muslim classmate, was released to her parents when she told the court that she wanted to go home with them. Again, no action was taken against the alleged perpetrators of the crime.

In another similar instance, 15-year-old Christian girl Faiza Mukhtar’s parents in Sheikhupura, Punjab, await justice as their child was abducted and forcibly converted at a madrassa. The family is now facing pressure from the local Islamist groups to either convert or forget their child.

Who to blame?

The issue of forced conversions of young Hindu and Christian girls has persisted in Pakistan for decades now.

These conversions are rampant in Sindh where thousands of girls from Hindu families are picked and converted with impunity, according to the annual report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. It is no secret that the dargahs and madrassas in the area work as Islamic conversion factories. And, the perpetrators and the pirs of the shrines always have political backing.

The blame must clearly rest with the state because there are no laws against forced religious conversions.

The government of Sindh backtracked on the anti-conversion bill, which was passed by the Sindh assembly in November 2016. The bill made conversion under the age of 18 a punishable offence even if any person converts out of his/her own choice. Religious parties protested against the bill and called it ‘anti-Islam’. They said that the Council of Islamic Ideology should be consulted before any such legislation is moved.

In March, Sindh assembly member Nand Kumar tabled a new bill against the conversions – the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Act of 2019. Within weeks, religious groups threatened protests, and leading the charge was the notorious Pir Mian Abdul Khaliq of Bharchoondi Sharif, popularly known as Mian Mithoo, the man behind several cases of conversions.

Sindh has a marriage law, which sets the marriageable age at 18 and above, but when it comes to marriages of Hindu girls, this law is never implemented. The much-hyped case of sisters Raveena and Reena Meghwar is an example of that. Both girls were minors, 12 and 15, yet their marriages were considered legal and the law wasn’t implemented. In March, Imran Khan ordered action and inquiry against the culprits in the Raveena-Reena case, but nothing has come out of it so far.

Forced conversion of young girls is the worst form of persecution that marginalised minorities face in Pakistan.

Imagine one day your daughter is abducted, next you know she has a different name, you can’t meet her, and she is as good as dead to you. But even death gives you closure. There is no closure in forced conversions. Even the ones who are lucky to return to their families live with the trauma and shame of rape.

The author is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @nailainayat. Views are personal.