Landmark Hindu marriage bill inches closer to enactment

Islamabad: The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Monday unanimously approved a bill paving the way for enactment of a marriage law for Hindu minority in Pakistan.

The Hindu Marriages Bill has already been approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. Hindus make up around two per cent of estimated 200 million population of the country. The Hindu Marriage Bill 2016 will become a law after it will be passed by the Senate, the upper house of the Parliament.

The legislation will enable the Hindu community to get their marriages registered and to appeal in courts of law in cases of separation. It allows separated Hindu persons to remarry.

The Senate committee under the chair of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Senator Nasreen Jalil took up the bill for discussion and later approved it.

Considered as a comprehensive and widely-acceptable family law for Hindus living in Pakistan, the bill will enable the Hindu community to get their marriages registered and to appeal in courts of law in cases of separation.

There are penalties for violating the provisions of the bill, which allows Hindus to finally have a proof of marriage document called the shadiparat, similar to the nikahnama for Muslims.

The bill also allows separated Hindu persons to remarry.

Clause 17 of the bill states that a Hindu widow “shall have the right to remarry of her own will and consent after the death of her husband provided a period of six months has lapsed after the husband’s death”.

The Dawn reported that soon after the bill was approved, the Committee Room 4 in Parliament House echoed with jubilation as senators and officials of different ministries started thumping their desks.

A minority member of the National Assembly, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani called the bill a new year’s gift for Hindus living in Pakistan.

“Today, we are proud to be Hindu Pakistanis after the approval of the bill. Hindus will now be able to get registered their marriages and also apply for divorce under family laws,” he said.

Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, a constitutional expert, said the bill is in accordance with the essence of the Constitution and Islamic jurisprudence as Islam emphasises protection of minorities.

After passing through the committee stage, the bill will be presented before the Senate where it is sure to win bipartisan support.

The bill will be applicable to all Pakistan minus Sindh province which last year separately adopted its own Hindu marriage law.

Hindus make up approximately 1.6 per cent of Pakistan’s Muslim-majority 190 million population, but they have not had any legal mechanisms to register their marriages since independence in 1947.

Christians, the other main religious minority, have a British law dating back to 1870 regulating their marriages.

— with inputs from IANS