The Pakistan Senate on Friday passed the landmark Hindu Marriage Bill 2017.
It is the first comprehensive personal law applicable for the Hindu community in the country and covers marriage, registration of marriage, separation and remarriage.
The new law makes way for the issuance of a “Shaadi Parath”, a document signed by the pundit and approved by the department concerned.
Dawn News reported that the bill is widely acceptable to Hindus living in Pakistan because it relates to marriage, registration of marriage, separation and remarriage, with the minimum age of marriage set at 18 years for both boys and girls.
The bill will help Hindu women get documentary proof of their marriage.
It will be the first personal law for Pakistani Hindus, applicable in Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The Sindh province has already formulated its own Hindu Marriage Law.
The bill presented in the Senate by Law Minister Zahid Hamid faced no opposition or objection. It was mainly due to the sympathetic views expressed by the lawmakers of all political parties in the relevant standing committees.
The bill was approved by the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on January 2 with an overwhelming majority.
However, Senator Mufti Abdul Sattar of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl had opposed the bill, claiming that the Constitution was vast enough to cater to such needs.
While approving the bill, committee chairperson Senator Nasreen Jalil of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had announced, “This was unfair — not only against the principles of Islam but also a human rights violation — that we have not been able to formulate a personal family law for the Hindus of Pakistan.”
Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a leading Hindu lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, had been working relentlessly for three years to have a Hindu marriage law in the country.
“Such laws will help discourage forced conversions and streamline the Hindu community after the marriage of individuals,” he said, expressing gratitude to the parliamentarians.
