A leader of Pakistan's Hindu community called on Wednesday for the government to carry out amendments to the divorce and marriage acts covering Pakistan's religious minorities, some of the legislations as ancient as the late 19th century. Haroon Sarbdiyal, chairman of the All Pakistan Hindu Movement Rights, told a news conference at the Press Club it was time for the Christian Divorce Act and Christian Marriage Act, which date back respectively to 1869 and 1872, to be modified to meet the needs of the present times.
Sarbdiyal said that a draft of the Minorities Family (Amendments) Bill is pending for long with the Senate's standing committee, which he criticized for using what he called were delaying tactics to prevent changes in family laws related to the religious minority.
He complained that the minorities should have been given representation as members of the committees and related bodies like the commissions. Radesh Singh Tony, a representative of the Sikh community, Pastor Amir William, chairman of the Shaloom Bible College, Silas Gill, who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Munesha Arfa, a member of the National Minority Rights Network were the most prominent local representatives of the religious minorities at the press conference.
Radesh Singh criticized Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's coalition government led by the Tehreek-e-Insaf for what they called its failure to resolve the problems of the religious minorities communit and giving them due facilities in the province. He demanded that the government increase the job quota for the minorities from three to five percent.
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