Clerics criticised proposed anti-forced conversion law

There has been a meeting attended by senior officials of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Ministry of Religious Affairs, and clerics belonging to the four mainstream schools of thought in the country - Shia, Barelvi, Deobandi and Ahle Hadis (Kalbe, 2021). During this meeting, clerics and senior officials rejected the title of the draft bill - Anti Forced Conversion -, declaring that “there was no forced conversion in the country and most of the cases were related to love affairs between individuals” (News Desk, 2021). One of the clerics later called the bill a “trap of the West”. The meeting formed a committee headed by Dr Inamullah Khan, head of research at the CII, to suggest an alternative name and eradicate controversial clauses in it (Kalbe, 2021). 

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) formed another meeting aimed to formulate proposals for the bill against forced conversion. This commission strives for promoting religious harmony in the Pakistani society, and condemned the negligence of the present administration towards religious minorities (Ibid). Nevertheless, the meeting applauded the government for arresting the perpetrators of the Ganesh Mandir temple attach (Ibid).

SOURCE: https://twitter.com/bhoryani_esh/status/1388808327455547393 

SOURCES

Kalbe, Albi (2021). Clerics reject proposed anti-forced conversion law. In Dawn https://www.dawn.com/news/1642778/clerics-reject-proposed-anti-forced-conversion-law.

(News Desk (2021). Anti-Forced Conversion Bill: Clerics Unhappy With Minimum Age, Conversion Procedure. In The Friday Times https://www.thefridaytimes.com/anti-forced-conversion-bill-clerics-unhappy-with-minimum-age-conversion-procedure/.