Will Pakistan wake up to it? Apprehensions of Pakistani Hindus
LUBP has always voiced concerns over the deteriorating situation of minorities in Pakistan. This state of affairs has further aggravated during the past few months. From two high profile assassinations in the federal capital for their bold opposition to discriminatory laws against the minorities, the situation is rapidly worsening for minorities throughout Pakistan.
The following article at BBC Urdu highlights the increasing concerns and grievances of Pakistani Hindus.
پاکستان کے صوبہ سندھ کے شہر حیدر آباد میں منعقدہ ایک کنونشن میں عہد کیا گیا ہے کہ آئندہ سندھ بھر میں ہندو برادری کے لوگوں کے اغواء، لڑکیوں کو مسلمان کرنے اور قتل کرنے کے خلاف مشترکہ جدوجہد کی جائے گی۔
ینگ ہندو پنچائیت کے زیر اہتمام منعقدہ ’آل سندھ منارٹی آدم شماری کنونشن‘ کے شرکاء نے کہا کہ ہندووں کے خلاف زیادتی پر آواز اٹھائی جائے گی جب کہ پولیس اور دیگر ذمہ دار لوگوں کا گھیراو کیا جائے گا۔
جمعہ کو ہندو برادری کے نوجوانوں کی طرف سے بلائے گئے کنونشن میں سندھ کے تمام اضلاع کی نمائندگی کے علاوہ ممتاز ہندو شخصیات نے شرکت کی، جن میں مسلم لیگ قاف کے رکن قومی اسمبلی کشن چند پاروانی، معروف وکیل جھمٹ جھیٹانند، لیڈی ڈاکٹر روبی، اے ایس اہوجھا، صحافی سترام مہشوری اور اشوک شرما نمایاں تھے۔
ہندو برادری کی ممتاز شخصیات کے علاوہ سندھ ترقی پسند پارٹی کے سربراہ ڈاکٹر قادر مگسی، عوامی تحریک کے صدر ایاز لطیف پلیجو بھی کنونشن میں شریک تھے۔
نامہ نگار علی حسن کے مطابق سندھ میں سنہ انیس سو اٹھانوے کی مردم شماری کے مطابق چالیس لاکھ ہندو آباد تھے جو کنونشن کے شرکاء کے مطابق اب پچاس لاکھ ہو چکے ہیں۔
کنونشن کومردم شماری کے معاملے پر گفتگو کرنا تھی لیکن برادری کی نمایاں شخصیات طویل عرصے بعد ایک مقام پر اکھٹی ہوئی تھیں اس لیے سندھ میں ہندو برادری کو درپیش صورتحال پر سیر حاصل تقاریر کی گئیں۔
کنونشن میں ہندووں کی بھارت منتقلی پر بھی تشویش کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے مقررین نے برادری سے اپیل کی کہ وہ منتقلی کی بجائے اسی سر زمین پر رہتے ہوئے اپنے قانونی حقوق کی لڑائی لڑیں کیوں کہ ہم بھی سرزمین کی اولاد ہیں اور ہمیں آئین کے مطابق برابری کے حقوق حاصل ہیں۔
مقررین کا کہنا تھا کہ بھارت منتقلی تیز رفتاری کے ساتھ ہو رہی ہے لیکن حکومت اس کا نوٹس ہی نہیں لیتی ہے۔
نوجوان مقررین نے زیادہ غم اور غصے کا اظہار کیا اور ان کا کہنا تھا کہ’ تاوان کے لیے ہندو برادری کے معصوم بچوں اور تاجروں کااغواء معمول بن گیا ہے اور ہندو لڑکیوں کو اغواء کر کے مسلمان کیا جانا اور ان کے ساتھ ان کی رضامندی کے بغیر شادیاں کرنا روز مرہ کا معاملہ ہو گیا ہے جس پر حکومت کوئی قابل ذکر قدم اٹھانے میں کامیاب نہیں ہو سکی ہے۔‘
مقررین نے برادری کو تنقید کا نشانہ بناتے ہوئے کہا کہ ہندو برادری میں بنیادی خامی یہ ہے کہ وہ اپنے آپ کو اقلیت کہلاتے اور تصور کرتے ہیں حالانکہ وہ دھرتی کی اولاد ہیں اور اکثریت کے برابر حقوق رکھتے ہیں اور وسائل میں برابر کے حقدار ہیں۔
مردم شماری کے حوالے سے کنونشن کے شرکاء کا کہنا تھا کہ مردم شماری کے عملے میں ہندو برادری اور دیگر اقلیت کے نمائندے شامل کیے جائیں تاکہ مردم شماری میں کوئی خامی نہ رہ سکے۔
پاکستان کی قومی اسمبلی، صوبائی اسمبلی اور سینیٹ میں موجود ہندو اراکین اور حکومت سندھ کے تین ہندو وزیروں پر بھی تنقید کی گئی اور کہا گیا کہ ان لوگوں نے برادری کے عام لوگوں کے مسائل اور معاملات پر کبھی توجہ نہیں دی ہے۔
’برادری کا المیہ یہ ہے کہ مخصوص نششتوں پر منتخب ہونے والے ان کی برادری کے نمائندے مسائل حل کرنے میں کوئی دلچسپی نہیں لیتے ہیں اور عام انتخابات میں ان کے ووٹ لے کر منتخب ہونے والےنمائندے انہیں مشورہ دیتے ہیں کہ اپنی برادری کے نمائندوں کے پاس جا کر مسائل حل کرائیں۔‘
عام لوگ اس طرح چکی کے دونوں پاٹوں میں پس رہے ہیں اور ان کی سمجھ میں نہیں آتا ہے کہ آخر وہ کس سے رجوع کریں۔
کنونشن میں مسلم لیگ قاف کے رکن قومی اسمبلی کشن چند پاروانی نے بھی تلخ لہجے میں تقریر کی۔
انہوں نے کہا کہ پاکستان کے قیام کے بعد سے ہندو برادری کو تیسری درجے کا شہری تصور کیا جاتا ہے اور ان کے قانونی اور معاشی حقوق صلب کیے جاتے رہے ہیں لیکن حکومت میں شامل لوگ پاکستان میں موجود اقلیت کےمعاملات پر سنجیدگی سے کبھی غور کرتے ہیں اور نہ ہی توجہ دیتے ہیں اور اسی وجہ سے لوگ بھارت منتقل ہو رہے ہیں۔
Source: BBC
Airing apprehensions: ‘Monitoring cell to oversee counting of Hindus’
By Zeeshan Bhatti
Published: April 2, 2011
Holi was celebrated at the Swami Narayan mandir in Karachi on March 19. Leaders of the Hindu community have said they will hold their representatives in power responsible if there is any injustice to them in the upcoming census from April 5. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
HYDERABAD:
A monitoring cell will be formed by the minority community to oversee the counting of their households in Sindh in the upcoming census.
“We are represented by two senators, eight MNAs and 10 MPAs in Sindh and they are responsible for protecting and serving our community,” said speakers at the All Sindh Minority Census Convention, organised by Young Hindu Panchayat in Hyderabad on Friday. They said that if the community was not treated justly in the census, then they would hold their elected representatives responsible.
Addressing the convention, Pakistan Muslim League-Q MNA Kishan Chand Parwani, who was elected on reserved seats, said that minorities in Pakistan are treated as “third-rate citizens”.
“Being considered a negligible minority, our representation in the country’s top bureaucracy is disappointing,” he said.
Parwani urged his community, especially the educated class, to help others realise and understand the importance of the census.
The census monitoring cell would watch the process closely and ensure that the Hindus are treated fairly.
He condemned the incidents in which Hindu girls were forced to convert to Islam after marrying Muslim men.
While the Hindus had trouble settling in Pakistan, India was not giving all of them visas either, so the minority community did not even have the option of resettling, said Parwani.
Meanwhile, Awami Tehreek President Advocate Ayaz Latif Palijo acknowledged that there were communal problems in Pakistan and said that the status of minority communities had actually sunk even lower in the recent years.
“Hundreds of thousands of Hindus migrated to India after partition and those who were left behind [in Pakistan] hoped they would merge with the majority here,” he said. Time has proved, however, that their hopes were in vain. Since partition, they have only been ostracised further, he added.
But all is not lost, Palijo said. The trend is slowly starting to change. “A new Sindh is being created, in which protests and complaints are being replaced by an organised struggle for people’s rights and just demands.”
Palijo also criticised forceful conversions and said there should be at least three conditions applicable to a conversion after marriage. “The girl should be 18 years or above. She should testify before a sessions court judge about her conversion instead of the current practice of testifying at a mosque or madarassa. Parents of a girl who elopes to marry with a Muslim should be allowed to meet her within 72 hours.”
Emphasising the importance of the census for people in Sindh, Palijo said that the Hindu community would also be counted in the process and therefore, be able to get their due rights.
Sindh Taraqi Pasand (STP) President Qadri Magsi said that Hindus had as much right on this land as other communities do.
“We all are Sindhis, our elders, our land and our traditions are the same,” he said.
Magsi said that the present condition of Hindus was not just the Muslims’ fault. He blamed the Hindu landlords in the rural areas and the Hindu business community in the cities.
Sindh is the land of Sufis, who professed love and freedom. “There is no place for segregation, discrimination or servitude here,” he added.
Advocate Arjundas, leader of the Pakistan Menghwadh Council, stressed the need to create awareness in the Hindu community of the census’s importance. “If we are unable to tell people about it, we will blame ourselves in the future,” he cautioned.
He criticised the leadership of nationalist parties for leaving the Hindu families to fend for themselves every time there was a problem or a crisis. “We have yet to see a nationalist leader visit a family whose daughter has been forcefully converted.”
Social activist Amar Sindhu was of the view that the discrimination between Hindus and Muslims had been nurtured since partition. She blamed religious leaders of the two communities for being a hurdle in the way of greater assimilation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2011.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/141021/airing-apprehensions-monitoring-cell-to-oversee-counting-of-hindus/
Hindus demand their right to register marriages
By Azam Khan
Published: April 1, 2011
Hindus say denial of legal matrimonial recognition leads to the denial of other basic rights.
ISLAMABAD:
Calling for an end to institutionalised discrimination going back 62 years, the Scheduled Caste Rights Movement of Pakistan (SCRM) demanded quick passage of a law pertaining to Hindu marriage registration.
In a press conference held here on Thursday, the SCRM pleaded the parliamentarians and concerned citizens to give Hindus the same treatment as other communities vis-a-vis their right to register marriages.
They warned the government that they would launch a forceful campaign if it failed to protect their basic rights, particularly that of marriage registration. They announced the launch of a nation-wide “signature campaign” in this regard.
Hindu women, hailing from different parts of the country, expressed regret over the government’s failure to end injustice against the poor women of the Hindu community. They alleged that they were being discriminated against in the right to possess Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC), which, in their view, was congruent with a denial of their basic rights of citizenship.
“On not being able to produce marriage registration certificates, we are not entitled to get CNIC, which in turn denies us the right to vote as well. Despite the Supreme Court’s suo motu ruling of November 23 2010 in our favour, no measures have been taken to introduce legal provisions for our rights,” said Sangeeta Devi.
Shami Mai, a poor woman from Rahim Yar Khan, said, “In case of separation or domestic violence, a Hindu woman cannot register a complaint in government departments because she does not have any legal document to establish the perpetrator as her husband.”
Hindu families also face a great deal of problems while travelling. “If we travel or stay in a hotel, policemen and hotel administrations mistreat us. They become suspicious of our relation to each other. If the government passes a law that enables
us to register married couples, we would be able to defend our self respect by showing documentary evidence of
our statuses. In most cases, we end up spending nights at railway stations or foot-paths,” complained Naina Bai.
In the view of Anita Vadhani, an O-level student, Hindu women faced many more problems than women of other faiths in Pakistan. “If one of our girls is abducted or there is an incident of forced conversion or remarriage, we cannot contest the case in courts because we don’t have marriage certificates,” she told The Express Tribune.
Shanktala Devi, a housewife, said that the absence of marriage registration laws had deprived Hindu women of their right to property and other rights conferred upon a divorced or widowed woman. She urged the quick passage of a bill ensuring them their right to register marriages in local government departments.
The members of the Hindu community threatened to hold a sit-in in front of the parliament building in June if their demands remained unmet. They urged the media and the concerned citizens of Pakistan to show support for their campaign by participating in it.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 01st, 2011.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/140805/hindus-demand-their-right-to-register-marriages/
Matters of matrimony
By Editorial
Published: April 1, 2011
The demands of the community and the ruling of the court need to be enforced without further delay.
Hindus have demanded at a press conference in Islamabad that the government take immediate action to ensure that their marriages are registered. The Scheduled Castes Rights Movement has pointed out that the failure to ensure this has made it impossible for a Hindu woman to prove marriage — this complicates the issuance of identity cards and deprives members of the Hindu community of the right to vote. The absence of proof of marriage also makes it harder to prove abductions in cases where Hindu women are taken away, forced to convert and made to marry Muslims. Despite a November 2010 Supreme Court ruling in favour of the Hindu community, no change has been made in regulations. This is just one of the many examples of discrimination against the minority group.
The issue of marriage goes beyond the Hindu minority. While the precise legal position regarding civil marriages is a matter of some debate, in practice, notably since the 1980s, there has been a strict adherence to Shariah, making it impossible, for example, for a Muslim and Hindu to marry without conversion. The same issue pertains to Ahmadis marrying a Muslim. Things had, records show, been quite different in the early years of Pakistan, giving wider range to adult choice in such matters. Now that over 20 years have passed since the era of General Ziaul Haq, perhaps these issues all need to be thought about again and their implications should be considered.
But where there can be no doubt at all is on the need to register Hindu marriages. The failure on this count makes no sense and reduces the community to the level of unequal beings, living under the same sun but deprived of its light. The demands of the community and the ruling of the court need to be enforced without further delay. Otherwise we can make no claims to be the state envisaged by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2011.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/141013/matters-of-matrimony/
‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’ has no room for Hindus
Hindus and Muslims may have similar wedding celebrations, but there is no registration system for Hindu marriages in Pakistan.
The Indian parliament passed the Hindu Marriage Act in 1955 which made it mandatory for Hindu marriages to be registered in India. In Pakistan, the Hindu community has been demanding the same rights for decades, but to no avail.
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/5389/jinnahs-pakistan-has-no-room-for-hindus/
Members of the Hindu community gave a two-month deadline to the government and threatened to hold a sit-in in front of the Parliament House in June if these demands were not met. They urged the media and concerned citizens to participate in a petition campaign as a token of support for the cause of poor Hindu women. But all to no avail.
Despite the Supreme Court’s suo motu ruling of November 23, 2010, no measure has been taken to introduce legal provisions for Hindu marriage rights by the Parliament. The assurances made by the Prime Minister have also not produced any results.
The assassination of minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti further worsened the situation, especially for Hindus. Anita Vadhani, an O-Level student from Rahim Yar Khan says:
“Shahbaz was our last hope but his tragic end forced us to think seriously. We should either leave or migrate to another country.”
Shami Mai, a poor Hindu woman said:
“In case of separation or domestic violence, a Hindu woman cannot register a complaint in the government departments because she has no legal document to establish that the perpetrator was her husband.”
The shocking news about a Hindu MPA from Sindh migrating to India is another sign that the situation is worsening. PPP MNA Palwasha Behram blasted her own government in the National Assembly for the deafening silence of her fellow parliamentarians over the unfortunate fleeing of minorities from Pakistan.
But the injustice persists.
Sadly, many followers of the Hindu faith have left the country as a result of the injustices perpetrated towards them by those in power.
An Islamabad based journalist hailing from Sindh, Kapil Dev, says:
“Our community members are migrating to other countries because they think that no one accepts them in Pakistani society.”
The persecution of Hindus has become a regular feature in Pakistan, especially in Sindh. The Sikh community in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa (KP) is also suffering from insecurity despite the power the progressive Awami National Party in that region.
Minorities’ rights are being denied and our parliamentarians and citizens are not concerned about their demands even though they have the power to change things.
Was this Jinnah’s dream for Pakistan?
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/5389/jinnahs-pakistan-has-no-room-for-hindus/