Home Latest News President Signs Into Law Landmark Hindu Marriage Bill

President Signs Into Law Landmark Hindu Marriage Bill

by AFP

The interior of the Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple in Karachi. Facebook

New law will allow Hindus to file for divorce and remarry, as well as protect financial security of dependents after divorce.

President Mamnoon Hussain has signed into law a bill allowing Pakistan’s Hindu minority to register their marriages for the first time since Partition from India in 1947.

The bill, signed by Hussain on Sunday, will “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Hindu families,” a government statement said. It will also allow Hindus to file for divorce and remarry, and will protect the financial security of women and children after divorce.

Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, head of the Pakistan Hindu Council, told AFP on Monday the legislation would solve many problems faced by the community in Pakistan, where discrimination and violence against religious minorities is often reported in media. “This law is a welcome step … It will remove all difficulties for the registration of Hindu marriages,” he said.

Following the end of British rule in South Asia in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned into mainly Hindu India and Pakistan, triggering widespread religious bloodshed in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions displaced. Since then, Pakistani Hindus—who number around 8.2 million in the country of an estimated 200 million people—have been unable to acquire the legal documentation needed to register marriages and annulments.

Lawmakers in Sindh, where most Pakistani Hindus live, passed their own provincial legislation last year allowing Hindus to register marriages.

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