Once again, religious parties express their opposition to progress and citizens’ rights, by mounting pressure on the Sindh government and its law makers to repeal a Bill against forced conversions in Sindh.
They have called it un-Islamic, but have so far refused to give the public any logical or legal reasons for proclaiming the Bill opposed to a religion that says in its manifesto (2:256): “there shall be no compulsion in religion”.
Jama’at-i-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq talked to Pakistan People s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the phone, and asked him to take back the bill against forced religion conversions in Sindh.
Siraj said that Sindh assembly had gone against Shariah and the Constitution of Pakistan by passing this bill. He said the 1973 constitution was a gift to the nation by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and everyone accepted it; but PPP’s provincial government was making it controversial.
He said the bill should be taken back immediately.
Meanwhile, speaking with the same meaningless abstractions, Jamiat Ulema-e-islam has termed the move as going against constitution and Islam, and has criticised PPP lawmakers in the Sindh Assembly for having passed the bill against forced religious conversion.
Talking to press on Monday, JUI leader Taj Muhammad Nahyoon said that by passing the ‘un-Islamic’ law, PPP had ridiculed its own leader the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
He said that his party had called all parties conferences: in Sukkur (on Dec 1) and Karachi (on Dec 6). He demanded of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to disqualify members of the Sindh Assembly who had voted for the bill.
Meanwhile, Maulana Samiul Haq called for the dismissal of the Sindh Assembly over the passage of a bill against forced conversions.
“The Sindh government is converting the province into ‘Kafiristan’ with such un-Islamic decisions,” Sami, who is head of Madrassa Haqqani, demanded imposition of governor’s rule in Sindh.
“Since the assembly has collectively banned religious conversion, it has committed treason with the Quran and Sunnah, and with the Constitution. There is no justification for the assembly to stay,” the JUI-S leader said.
It would be pertinent to mention here that conversion to Islam has not been banned, rather the bill states that no person shall be deemed to have changed their religion until they attain the age of maturity, which is 18 years.
