Empower minorities, and push for peace

Defend­ing the rights of reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties in the pur­suit of social jus­tice is one of the key pil­lars of strong bilat­er­al ties and region­al har­mo­ny. The achieve­ment of supreme civ­il rights is imper­a­tive to break the hold of decade old medieval ide­olo­gies to reflect the ethos of an enlight­ened poli­ty. Any mile­stone on that path is a major achieve­ment, and in the con­text of India-Pak­istan ties, anoth­er step towards the dis­tant vision of peace­ful co-exis­tence; glob­al­ly as well as with­in Pak­istan.

After Sindh became the first province of Pak­istan to give Hin­dus the right to reg­is­ter their mar­riage offi­cial­ly, the Nation­al Assem­bly is mulling a wider bill on rec­og­niz­ing Hin­du mar­riage rights, includ­ing issues such as inher­i­tance, divorce, and child main­te­nance. This is a major civ­il rights move in a coun­try where the 2% Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty is not pro­vid­ed ade­quate legal cov­er. Hin­du women are vul­ner­a­ble and easy tar­gets of reg­u­lar abduc­tions and forced reli­gious con­ver­sions and Hin­du cou­ples face prob­lems in acquir­ing basic ser­vices such as open­ing bank accounts, apply­ing for visas, get­ting nation­al iden­ti­ty cards and shares of prop­er­ty, just because they lack a proof of mar­riage.

The law in Sindh is not fool­proof. While it can be applied retroac­tive­ly to exist­ing unions, mar­riages can be annulled if any spouse con­verts. Human rights activists hope a nation­al law will take a broad­er view of social issues, address such con­tro­ver­sial claus­es and pro­vide the same legal cov­er to all cit­i­zens.

The Nation­al Assembly’s ini­tia­tive is par­tic­u­lar­ly sig­nif­i­cant as Pak­istan PM Nawaz Sharif argues that he is com­mit­ted to peace with India. It has long been a nar­ra­tive of far right ele­ments in India, many linked to the cur­rent Estab­lish­ment, that the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty is per­se­cut­ed in Pak­istan, point­ing fin­gers at the reg­u­lar influx of refugees, and high­light­ing the lack of basic civ­il rights as indica­tive of Pakistan’s ‘theo­crat­ic’ polit­i­cal sys­tem. Expand­ing legal cov­er and basic civ­il rights to all Hin­dus in Pak­istan, not only sends a pro­gres­sive mes­sage to the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty, but even the gov­ern­ment in India ruled by the BJP. Although it is not wise to equate com­mu­nal rights with indo-Pak ties but this argu­ment has been used to pro­mul­gate hate on both sides by the fanat­ics. To pro­vide legal cov­er to reli­gious minori­ties on both sides will at least become anoth­er rea­son to co-exist.

In the past few years, civ­il rights strug­gles have achieved mul­ti­ple vic­to­ries around the world, with human rights trump­ing tra­di­tion and dog­ma. Ire­land, Britain and the Unit­ed States have empow­ered the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty, a case that deeply divid­ed all these nations along reli­gious lines. As India and Pak­istan both seek to secure their place in the comi­ty of sec­u­lar democ­ra­cies, civ­il rights should no longer be a divi­sive issue. Bor­der dis­putes per­sist and both sides refuse to see eye to eye on ter­ror­ism and secu­ri­ty issues. How­ev­er, the rights of reli­gious minori­ties are low-hang­ing fruit, and Pak­istan can deliv­er not only as a ser­vice to its cit­i­zens, but also as a good­will ges­ture to show­case its com­mit­ment towards a peace­ful world for all com­mu­ni­ties. This move will also help to weak­en the nar­ra­tive of the far right on both sides of the bor­der who not only seek to derail the peace process, but the social progress of both young democ­ra­cies.