Church of Pakistan slams PM Imran Khan-led govt for rejecting draft bill on forced conversions

Citing a press statement by CoP released on Monday, The Nation quoted Bishop Azad Marshall, CoP president, as saying that the government bodies had termed the crucial legislation as “un-Islamic” even though the legislation prepared by the Ministry of Human Rights was not against the Islamic faith and was a sincere effort to protect the girl child.

He said, the “unilateral decision, without taking the leadership of the religious minorities on board, has increased fear and insecurity in the non-Muslim communities of the country.”

The organisation leaders approved a unanimous resolution on the issue during a meeting of the CoP’s bishops and members of the synod council.

According to the resolution, “The Church of Pakistan condemns in the strongest terms the government’s volte-face on the crucial legislation for protecting the girl child belonging to minority communities.

“The draft bill, in no means, is an attempt to discourage people from changing their faith. The Church does not restrain its adult members from their willful conversion to the faith of their choice but the manner in which minor girls are being abducted, forcibly converted, and married to their abductors under the guise of religion is condemnable.”

The resolution stated that the government has “capitulated to certain vested religious interests by denying women and minority children their due right to security by rejecting the anti-forced conversion and anti-domestic violence draft bills.”

According to the report by The Nation, the resolution also demanded the government to reconsider its decision of amending the communal properties law, which would allow criminal elements to sell minority properties illegally.

It urged the government to transfer the control of the Edwardes College in Peshawar to the Church as nationalizing missionary education institutions is like “rubbing salt on the wounds of the patriotic Christian community.”

“Christians have always contributed to nation-building and the country’s security since Pakistan’s creation and we believe that such decisions are detrimental to national unity and cohesion. We urge the government to take the religious minorities on board on all decisions concerning their communities so that all challenges are addressed through mutual consultation and consensus,” the resolution concluded.