EGN NEWS DESK
Another Christian lady in Pakistan, this one 14 years previous, has fallen sufferer to pressured conversion and marriage by a Muslim kidnapper, sources stated.
Khalid Masih, a 48-year-old Catholic sanitation employee in Islamabad, stated {that a} butcher in his neighborhood, Haider Ali, took his daughter Alina Khalid from their dwelling within the Khanna Pul space of Islamabad on June 24.
“Some neighbors advised us that that they had seen an unidentified lady exterior our home on the day Alina went lacking,” Masih advised Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “When we started trying to find her, I got here to know that Haider Ali, a 27-year-old butcher in our neighborhood, had deliberate Alina’s abduction.”
He filed a criticism with Khanna Police that day, however they took no motion, he stated.
“The FIR [First Information Report] was lastly registered late on June 25, giving the accused enough time to enter hiding,” Masih stated.
The Masih household discovered on June 27 that their daughter had been forcibly transformed to Islam and married to Ali, he stated.
“We got here to learn about Alina’s conversion and marriage after she recorded her assertion in court docket during which she purportedly claimed that she had modified her religion and married Ali by alternative,” stated Masih.
The Nikah Nama (Islamic marriage certificates) states that Alina’s age was 19, however it lacks her required nationwide identification card quantity, he stated.
Typically kidnapped women in Pakistan, some as younger as 10, are kidnapped, pressured to transform to Islam and raped beneath cowl of such Islamic “marriages” and are then pressured to document false statements in favor of the abductors, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary proof associated to the kids’s ages, handing them again to kidnappers as their “authorized” wives.
Masih stated his daughter couldn’t have gone with Ali willingly.
“Alina didn’t have a telephone and by no means went out of the home alone, so I do not suppose she had any direct contact with Ali,” he stated. “He has kidnapped her with the only goal of exploiting her sexually. Like all different victims, Alina too was pressured to do what her abductor stated.”
Police have did not recuperate Alina and current the suspect in court docket, he added.
Masih faces a frightening problem in his wrestle to recuperate her.
“My spouse is affected by Hepatitis C and can also be a diabetic,” he stated. “Her well being has began to deteriorate because of the trauma of Alina’s abduction. The ache of dropping our youngster and the ideas of her struggling in captivity hold each of us awake all night time. May God have mercy on us and save our youngster!”
Safdar Chaudhry, chairman of the Islamabad-based Raah-e-Nijaat Ministry, stated that police had been gradual to behave.
“The FIR was registered on our intervention after practically 26 hours of the incident,” Chaudhry stated. “Had the police acted on time, the accused might have been arrested, however inaction allowed him to vanish.”
The social activist referred to as for legislative reforms to cease the exploitation of underage minority women.
“The police should additionally understand its duty and may cease aiding the perpetrators. The identical goes for Pakistani courts that are granting authorized cowl to such sham marriages,” he stated.
New Bill
In a bid to criminalize underage marriages in Punjab province, the Punjab provincial authorities on April 25 submitted the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2024 within the Punjab Provincial Assembly, which might elevate the authorized age for marriage for each men and women to 18 years. Previously the authorized age for marriage for ladies in Punjab was 16.
Under the proposed invoice, anybody who marries a woman or boy beneath 18 or arranges such a wedding – together with mother and father or guardians – would face two to 3 years in jail and a nice of between 100,000 Pakistani rupees (US$360) and 200,000 rupees (US$720).
At the time of marriage registration, the wedding solemnizer, secretary of the union council and marriage registrar would test the Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) of the lady or boy, passport, academic certificates or different paperwork proving each are a minimum of 18 years previous. Attested copies of those paperwork could be required to be hooked up with the applying of marriage certificates.
Rights activists say that, although elevating the authorized marriage age to 18 years for each girls and boys will assist in stopping youngster marriages, sure amendments are required to make sure that minority women additionally get due protection of the regulation. Such amendments would override all “particular” legal guidelines and maxims associated to figuring out a woman’s age of maturity, they are saying, together with sharia (Islamic regulation) that enables women attaining puberty to be thought-about adults.
A Christian lawmaker just lately appointed because the chairman of the Standing Committee on Minorities Affairs and Human Rights lauded the government-moved invoice however stated it didn’t include any provision associated to minority women who “change their religion” for marriage.
“We are engaged on an modification to handle this subject, and we hope that each one events within the Punjab Assembly will endorse our stance,” stated Ejaz Alam Augustine. “Our goal is to make sure that minority women are protected in the identical means as Muslim women.”
Augustine, a former minister for Minorities Affairs and Human Rights in Punjab throughout the 2018-2022 authorities of Prime Minister Imran Khan, stated he had submitted a invoice looking for to forestall pressured conversion and compelled marriages of minority women in 2021, however that it was not taken up for dialogue beneath stress from hardline Muslims.
“There’s some hope now, and I feel it’s the finest time to make a laws that protects the lady youngster regardless of her religion affiliation,” he advised Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of essentially the most tough locations to be a Christian, because it was the earlier 12 months.
© 2024 Christian Daily International-Morning Star News
