Cracks emerge within Pakistan People’s Party

In what appeared to be a quite positive omen for minorities, serious differences between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) members have emerged in the National Assembly (NA). However, it was not good for the party at all.

On Thursday, the ruling party’s women and minorities members condemned the alleged kidnapping of Hindu girl Rinkal Kumari, (Faryal Shah) and her forced conversion to Islam.

The lawmakers while speaking at the point of order in the National Assembly demanded the provincial government to change its partial attitude towards the issue, demanding the speaker to rule in favour of the Hindu community.

At the same time, they demanded the passage of a consensus resolution against the incident.

PPP MNA from Sindh, Pir Abdul Haq Mian Mithu, opposed the stance of party members, saying the Hindu girl was not pressurized and she came to him to embrace Islam with her own free will.

In his view, no Muslim would vote for the PPP in the future, if the party opposed those converting to Islam. He observed, “If the party wants that no non-Muslim should become a Muslim, then a law should be passed in the parliament to impose ban on the conversion of non-Muslims”.

The Sindh-based MNA asked the ruling PPP to delete the word Islamic from Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as its members were opposing to the conversions to Islam.

PPP MNAs including Nafisa Shah, Azra Fazal, Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Mahesh Maliani, Ramesh Lal and Minister of State for Inter-Faith Harmony Akram Masih Gil strongly opposed Pir Abdul Haq’s point of view, saying they demanded a ban on conversions for marriage purposes.

Azra Afzal, the sister of President Asif Ali Zardari was of the opinion that no one could be allowed to force non-Muslims to embrace Islam, terming it against the teachings of Islam. In her view, the case of Rinkal Kumari was a sensitive matter, and had brought bad name to the country at the international level.

Another PPP MNA, Ramesh Lal said the provincial government had become a party in the issue, and after forcing the girl to change religion, she was being kept at Ghotki Darul Aman.

He told the House no one was being allowed to meet the girl, adding police was supporting only one group, the landlord of the area.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Mar 16 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.