Two girls aged 12 and 15 have been returned to their families in recent weeks, but the kidnappers have not been brought to justice. The complaint of human rights groups: “Impunity in the face of these forced conversions of very young girls fosters a phenomenon of which religious minorities are victims above all.”
Lahore () – On July 28, Pakistani human rights groups expressed concern about the lack of legal and administrative guarantees to protect underage minority girls from cases of forced conversion in Pakistan. They called on the government to take severe action against the perpetrators and their accomplices for committing crimes of forgery, sexual violence, child marriages and forced conversions.
They referred to a case that came to light this month: a 12-year-old girl, Maha Asif, was abducted by Muhammad Akmal from her home in Lahore. Her youngest was taken to Hasilpur, where she was forced to convert and marry against her will. The aggressors threatened her to sign her documents, since otherwise her refusal would endanger the life of her brothers. Likewise, saba nadeem, 15, was abducted, forcibly converted and given as a wife to Yasir Hussain, 45, in Faisalabad last May. It is encouraging that the police have filed a complaint under section 365-B, rescued both girls from the captivity of their attackers and helped reunite them with their families. But the sad thing is that the aggressors have not yet been brought to justice.
The fate of Chashman Kanwal, a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped in Faisalabad and taken to Sahiwal, where she was forcibly converted and given in marriage to Muhammad Usman in July 2021, is different. Although the police added the crimes in the complaint of child marriage and illegal marriage, offenses punishable by prison terms of up to 25 years, it is unfortunate that the author remains at large and that Chashman has not yet been released to her parents.
the president of Voice for JusticeJoseph Jansen said that, unfortunately, the perpetrators enjoy impunity. He asked the government for a comprehensive law against forced conversions, in accordance with international human rights standards, in order to catch and bring to justice the perpetrators and accomplices involved.
Afzal Bhatti points out that the failure to enforce existing national laws remains a key obstacle to preventing these practices. This causes the perpetrators to escape. Carol Nadeem pointed out that the government has failed to implement the rulings handed down by the Lahore High Court, the Islamabad High Court and the Federal Sharia Court in relation to religious conversions and the minimum legal age of marriage, in order to strengthen consensus for legislation that protects minority girls from exploitation by influential groups and criminal elements. This is why human rights violations related to forced conversions continue to occur.
A human rights activist, Ashiknaz Khokhar, pointed out that the absence of an adequate institutional response is fueling the phenomenon. She called for allegations of forced conversions and marriages to be investigated independently, impartially and quickly. The objective is to be able to arrest the perpetrators in order to bring them to justice in a process that guarantees the right to a fair trial and assures the victims justice and an effective remedy.
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