LAHORE: The Peoples Commission for Minorities Rights (PCMR) in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice on Thursday organised a conference to elaborate areas needing reforms in Christian marriage and divorce laws.
The conference opened with a screening of a documentary film presenting the point of views of rights activists, legal experts and Christian clergy.
Officials from the NCSW, AJK Commission on the Status of Women, an Islamic legal expert and parliamentarians including many MNAs presented their proposals towards reforming existing personal laws of Christians through legislative amendments at the federal and provincial levels.
The PCMR chairperson emphasised that the state has a responsibility to protect citizens from injustice and exploitation in matters related to marriage. “On the contrary, the laws in use fail to provide the minimal protections vis-à-vis proper registration and certification of marriages. No excuse whatsoever is accepted for delayed presentation of the amendment bills for discussion in and outside the parliament,” he said.
A position paper on ‘Reforms in Christian Marriage & Divorce Laws’ was also presented which identified the need for intensive awareness-raising campaign on this issue within Christian communities as well as the public at large.
In the end, participants unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon the federal and provincial governments to enact amendment bills drawing from the recommendations of National Commission on the Status of Women forwarded in 2011 and National Commission Justice and Peace in 2018.
Moreover, the resolution urged the Ministry of Human Rights, and the Ministry for Law and Justice to expedite work on the above-mentioned amendment bills and present them in the National Assembly.
