Pakistan’s Sindh province assembly passes landmark bill which allows Hindu widows to remarry

Islamabad, May 28: In Pakistan, Sindh province's assembly has passed a landmark bill allowing Hindu widows to remarry. The bill was initially moved by Nand Kumar Goklani of the functional Pakistan Muslim League in the assembly.

Hindu Community in Pakistan performing religious activities 

The bill also grants Hindu women the right to file a petition for dissolution of a marriage if they want to terminate their marriage. Sindh Law Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar said the bill had been passed unanimously.

Majority of the Hindu population in Pakistan reside in the Sindh province, including urban areas like Hyderabad, Sukkur, and Karachi.

“The objective of this Act is to address the issues relating to Hindu marriages,” reads the act, which also gives either party to a Hindu marriage the right to present a petition to the court seeking a judicial separation.

The bill also seeks to safeguard the financial welfare of wives and children and sets penalties for those breaching its requirements.

In the past few years, matrimonial issues have been growing in the Hindu community, especially in Sindh, according to Goklani. The rights of woman, children and their livelihood were too often ignored, he said.

Goklani said a “mass awareness drive” will be implemented to promote understanding of the legal change.