Another Hindu girl feared becoming victim of Pakistan’s legal system
.jpg)
It was my apprehension. But it seems my anxiety may become a reality as strong indications have started coming after the court proceedings inJacobabad. Because today the judge did not announce the verdict in the Hindu girl MehakKumari case, which he reserved yesterday to announce today.
Even the judge ordered to re-record of the girl’s version on 18th February for the third time. Before the announcement of the verdict, the Hindu girl Mahak, who was allegedly kidnapped and then forcibly converted to Islam would have to meet her parents and her kidnapper husband.
The same situation happened when in 2012 another Hindu girl Rinkle Kumari was also made to go with her alleged husband after she made a statement in court about her conversion. But she had previously insisted to go with her parents. In the suo moto case, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Chaudhry Iftikhar Muhammad had earlier sent her to a shelter home.
There are many identical things in both Mehak and Rinklecases: The girls were sent to official shelter homes and the religious zealots influenced the courts in their favour despite the civil society’s protest and hue and cry on social media.
“The judge was positive in favour of the girl yesterday and I am hoping he would allow her to go with her parents,” said a social activist and a local lawyer from Sukkur Sattar Zangejo when I called him at 12.30 pm. He said, “we are still waiting for the verdict to be announced in favour of Mehak.”But later the local media reported adjournment of the case till February 18.
The interesting point case of Mehak's forced conversion is that the girl was declared as a minor of 16 years of age by the official medical board that issued a certificate on the orders of the country. The court had earlier ordered the constitution of a medical board to ascertain the age as the girl’s lawyers had objected that marriage after conversion was illegal under Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013. The court had sent the girl to Darul Aman of Larkana.
Yesterday (February 6) workers of a right-wing religious party Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) -Fazlur Rehman group were present in the court in a large number and they also held a protest demonstration outside the court today(February 7) against a potential verdict in girl’s favour.
The local leaders of JUI-F had Yesterday also addressed a press conference in Jacobabad by threatening to the girl, her family and the lawyers, although a large number of human rights and civil society activists and lawyers were also present in the court in support of the Hindu girl. The indigenous Hindus of Jacobabad seemed helpless against the religious fanatics.
Mehak Kumari was reportedly kidnapped and later converted to Islam early this month. She appeared in a video saying she was married off to a twenty-eight-year-old Muslim Ali Raza Machhi who in fact, along with his father has been working on the construction site of Mehak’s father Vijay Kumar.
