For decades now Pakistan has engaged in a national programme of abusing its own minorities. Systematically it has allowed every rogue element in Pakistan a free hand to do whatever they want in pursuit of an Islamic nation that is 100% Muslim. To this end, it seems its vision is specifically a nation that is Sunni, rejecting all other forms of Islam and all other minorities.
The rampant forced conversions of Christian, Hindu and Sikh girls and women has now become common place throughout Pakistan. Whilst Pakistan exhibits laws that are meant to stop such brutal atrocities to the human rights of these women, the reality at the grassroots is that it has empowered all the extremists to do as they like.
Of course, I am not the only one concerned about these crimes against humanity. The British Parliaments’ All Party Parliamentary Group has launched an inquiry into ‘Abduction, Forced Marriage, and Forced Conversion of Girls and Young Women in Pakistan’. This inquiry is to be led by Lord Alton who has raised this issue a number of times before. Primarily within the context of Christian women and girls being forcefully converted to Islam in countries like Pakistan.
Politicians are now becoming aware of this grave situation in Pakistan. Primarily because it affected Christian girls and women, and the archbishop raised it as an issue. However, the fact that some are listening is a start and I have to commend Jim Shannon MP of the Democratic Unionist Party who has tabled an Early Day Motion titled: ‘Kidnapping and forced conversions in Pakistan’. So I say to every reader of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, if you can please send a note to your local MP and insist that they sign this EDM. The link to the EDM can be found here: https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/58317/kidnapping-and-forced-conversions-in-pakistan
Jim Shannon also asked a question to the Government: ‘To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he has taken to support girls who have been subject to forced conversions and marriages in Sindh, Pakistan’.
And to the credit of the Conservative Government, their reply by Nigel Adams MP was, ‘The UK Government strongly condemns the forced marriage and forced conversion of women and girls from religious minorities in Pakistan’.
The International Development Committee Oral evidence: UK aid to Pakistan, discussed the same issue. Dr Farzana Shaikh (Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House) in her oral evidence stated, ‘most of the girls who are said to have been forcibly converted are impoverished Hindu girls from Sindh. There have also been some recorded cases involving impoverished Christian girls from Punjab, as well as a few reported cases involving young girls from Sikh communities’.
In her response to a question from Pauline Latham a Conservative MP for Mid Derbyshire, Dr Shaikh said, ‘in recent months, there have been disturbing reports of a rise in the human trafficking of young girls. Much of this involves the trafficking of young girls from Pakistan’s impoverished Christian minority, concentrated mainly in Punjab, who are reportedly being sold as brides to Chinese men or forced into prostitution in China’.
What comes across to me is a nation, Pakistan, that has abdicated all responsibility in looking after the welfare of its women. This has been going on for decades, therefore regardless of who becomes the Prime Minister, the central narrative is of a nation that brutalises women from minority communities.
Pakistan gets the highest amount in aid from the UK. Is it not time that we demand immediate action to stop this brutality? Or do we witness several more decades of abuse until there are no minorities left in Pakistan?
