Daily Times

As usual there is nothing positive to report from this the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Week after week it is the same story. We find a way to stoop lower in terms of just common decency. The Arzoo case is most tragic. The 13 year old Christian girl was first abducted from her house and forcefully converted. Then she was forcibly married off to her abductor. It must be remembered that the Sindh law states that a girl has to be 18 years or more to marry and below 16 years any intercourse is statutory rape. While a fake birth certificate was produced which showed her to be 18 years of age, the NADRA record shows her to be 13 years of age. A cursory look at Arzoo’s picture shows use that girl does not even look 16 let alone 18 years of age.

The matter eventually landed into the Sindh High Court at Karachi through a writ petition filed by Arzoo against the police action against her and her “husband”. The High Court ruled: “”The petitioner initially belonged to the Christian religion. However, after the passage of time, the petitioner understood and realized that Islam is a universal religion and she asked her parents and other family members to embrace Islam but they flatly refused. Subsequently she accepted the religion of Islam before the religious person of MadressahJamiaIslamia. After embracing Islam, her new name is ArzooFaatima; per learned counsel petitioner contracted her marriage to Azhar of her own free will and accord without duress and fear.” The court also instructed the police to stop harassing the newly wed bride. It seems that the court has disregarded the NADRA record altogether.

Thankfully there is no apostasy law in Pakistan yet but it exists de facto if not de jure. Religious freedom is not a one-way street just as freedom of speech cuts both ways

This judgment violates the Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929. It must be remembered that one of the active supporters of the Act was none other than Mr Jinnah, standing up against trenchant opposition from his own community. It was here that Jinnah famously stated that if his constituency was unable to support his measure, the clearest duty on his part was to ask them to elect someone else. For Jinnah the issue hit home because he had married18-year-oldRuttie when he was 42 years of age and the marriage ended 10 years in a great tragedy given the age gap between two. He loved his wife dearly but years after her untimely demise Jinnah regretfully mourned that Ruttie had been just a child compared to him and that he should have never married her, calling it his mistake. There was of course a second mistake he made and realised at the very end of his life but there is no point getting into that.

Obviously if a person can vote at 18 years of age and enter into contracts, they should be allowed to marry. Such marriages however should be actively discouraged. Similarly conversion to another religion should not be allowed till one is 18 years of age. Layered upon this is the sheer hypocrisy that while conversions into Islam are justified as religious freedom but conversion out of Islam no matter what their age is almost untenable in this the Islamic Republic. Thankfully there is no apostasy law in Pakistan yet but it exists de facto if not de jure. Religious freedom is not a one-way street just as freedom of speech cuts both ways.

Speaking of freedom of speech and religion, aBar Association in this land of ours has invited a famous “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama” to speak to it on the occasion of a Milad function a few days from now. We all know how that is going to turn out. This particular “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama” is going to ask for the nuking of France and abuse people in general including minorities and call Christians “Chooras”. Of course as a freedom of speech absolutist one does not begrudge the right of “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama” to spew as much as abusive hatred against everyone, so long as Bar Association also opens up the floor for cross examination of the “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama”. If one were to ask him pointed questions, one would be lynched not just by his army of bigots but one’s own brethren in the legal fraternity. Therefore as such the foul-mouthed cleric who has abused the judiciary and the military in the past will be given the stage to resort to his rhetoric. Imagine if Nawaz Sharif or Bilawal Bhutto were to abuse the judiciary and the military. Their parties would be banned immediately. Not the case with Mullahs like “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama”. During a candid exchange, the president of the said body told me that “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama” will stick to the topic i.e. “Namoos-e-Rasalat”. Almost anything can be considered within the bounds of that topic. Such is the de facto restraint on freedom of speech; I am scared of naming the “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama” or the Bar Association in question in this article let alone attending the function and asking “Shaikh-ul-Hadith Allama” questions.

So here is a round up of another week in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. I hope, dear reader, you have more hope for this country than I have.

The writer is an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan