Islamabad: A Hindu lawmaker from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party has moved two bills in Parliament seeking enhancement of punishment for those involved in forced conversion and for making child marriage a cognisable offence, amid the nationwide outrage over the alleged forced conversion of two teenage girls from the minority community. Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) submitted Child Marriage Restraint Act (Amendment) Bill 2019 and the Criminal Law (Protection of Minorities) Act 2019 in National Assembly on Tuesday.
Dawn reported that the bills, moved in the wake of alleged kidnapping of two Hindu girls and their forced conversion to Islam, were accompanied by a resolution with the support of minority lawmakers from all major political parties condemning such incidents. Besides Vankwani, PTI legislators Lal Malhi and Shunila Ruth, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Dr Darshan and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Ramesh Lal signed the resolution.
Another Hindu girl abducted in Pakistan
Islamabad: A Pakistani man has claimed that a Hindu woman, who authorities said was a minor and abducted by four armed men, has converted to Islam and married him amidst uproar over a similar case involving two teenage girls from the minority community. One of the four suspects, who purported to be the girl’s husband, denied her father’s claim she was a minor, claimed that the girl was 19 years old.
