Treatment of Minorities in Pakistan

By Annum Shehryar

In light of a recent case, a 14-year-old Christian girl, Huma Younus, was kidnapped and taken away 600km from her home in Karachi on October 10 last year by 3 Muslim men. She had become pregnant due to the incessant sexual violence, which was perpetrated by her abductor named Abdul Jabbar, as reported by ACT international. She was forcibly converted and married off to this Muslim man and was confined in the room of her abductor’s house.

Her mother, Nagina, had claimed that the police had refused to accept her initial complaint regarding her daughter’s kidnapping and had filed the case on 12th October after refusing it several times. After a few days, the family had received Huma’s conversion papers and marriage certificate to Abdul Jabar. However, Huma’s mother insisted that the papers were fake as the conversion of these papers took place on the same day Huma was abducted. Abdul’s brother, Mukhtiar, who is a ranger, has been reported that he threatened to murder Huma’s parents if they came to search for their daughter, alongside with these threats made on phone calls and pictures of lethal weapons were also sent to intimidate them. Huma’s parents mentioned that Huma was to appear in court on 11th November but failed to show up, they were concerned that she might not even be alive.

For the report, the Judicial Magistrate had closed the case, as they cite ‘’lack of proof’’. Sindh High Court had released a statement that ‘’Christian girl’s child marriage to the r*pist is legal’’, made by the judges Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Irshad Ali Shah, as mentioned in tdesi.net. They had declared the forceful marriage between the victim and the abductor as valid, as Huma has already had her first menstrual cycle. This literally violates the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, which considers it a criminal offense for marriage before the age of 18. Just by reading this statement makes me feel sick. The court had delayed and continues to delay seeking justice on behalf of Huma, just because she is an underage Christian girl.

Abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and forced marriages is actually common in Pakistan, it is a major issue where mostly Hindu and Christian girls are married off against their will to much older Muslim men. According to the Social Justice Centre, between 2013 and 2019, at least 159 cases were registered. Some 16 girls and young women have pleaded for protection against their forced marriages before the Sindh High Court. These minorities are continued to be neglected by our police and the justice system. Sadly, the minorities are not considered equal in Pakistan thus many have been deprived of their basic human rights and are treated unfairly just because they have different beliefs than Muslims. Few people actually care about the heinousness of the crime perpetrated against these people, many try to justify these horrible acts by bringing Islam into it, although Islam does not even accept forced conversions or any kind of these evil acts.

We need to set our differences aside and treat people of different religions fairly and equally. We as privileged beings with access to social media need to raise our voices for minorities in our country; we should make good use of our platforms to educate and raise awareness about all the injustice that takes place against these people in order to grow a successful and peaceful society.