Serious differences between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) members have emerged in the National Assembly, as the ruling party’s women and minorities members condemned the kidnapping of Hindu girl Rinkal Kumari and her “forced conversion” to Islam.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Thursday, the members demanded the Sindh government to change its “partial attitude” towards the issue and demanded the speaker to rule in favour of the Hindu community. They also demanded the passage of a consensus resolution against the act.
PPP MNA from Sindh Pir Abdul Haq Mian Mithu, while opposing the stance of party members, said the Hindu girl was not pressurised and she came to him to embrace Islam with her own free will. He warned that if the PPP opposed those converting to Islam, no Muslim would vote for the party in the future. “If the party wants that no non-Muslim should become a Muslim, then a law should be passed in the parliament to impose ban on the conversion of non-Muslims,” he said. He also asked the party to delete the word “Islamic” from Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as its members were opposed to the conversions to Islam.
PPP members Nafisa Shah, Azra Fazal, Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Mahesh Maliani, Ramesh Lal and Minister of State for Inter-Faith Harmony Akram Masih Gil strongly opposed Pir Abdul Haq’s opinion, and said they demanded a ban on conversions for marriage purposes.
President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister Azra Afzal said that no one could be allowed to force non-Muslims to embrace Islam. He said the country’s law and Shariah do not allow this.
She said the case of Rinkal Kumari was a sensitive one, and had brought bad name to the country at the international level. She said the minorities were not allowed to live with freedom.
Ramesh Lal said the Sindh government had become a party in the issue, and after forcing the girl to change religion, she was being kept at Ghotki Darul Aman. He said no one was being allowed to meet the girl. He said police was supporting only one group.
MNA Nafisa Shah, daughter of Sindh chief minister, said that hundreds of Hindu girls had been forcibly converted to Islam, and that the administration should not become a party to such cases.
Cracks within PPP emerge over Hindu girl’s conversion
