IPS partakes in an academic dialogue on anti-forced conversion bill

IPS researchers Syed
Nadeem Farhat and Sufi Ghulam Hussain represented the Institute in a discussion
titled ‘The Proposed Law on Forced Religious Conversions: An Academic
Dialogue’, which was organized by Shaybani Foundation on September 22, 2021.

Alongside IPS researchers,
the session was addressed by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Dr Mohammad Mushtaq
Ahmed, legal expert and former director, Shari’ah Academy, and Dr Umair Mehmood
Siddiqui, member, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII).

In the wake of recently
proposed anti-forced conversion bill, the participants discussed the findings
of the IPS study ‘Forced Conversions or Faith Conversions: Rhetoric and
Reality’, which were presented by the report’s author Sufi Ghulam Hussain in a
bid to understand the phenomenon in detail.

Dr Mushtaq covered the legal
aspects of the proposed bill in the light of human rights charter of the UN and
the Constitution of Pakistan, whereas Senator Mushtaq lamented that politics is
extensively being played over the proposed bill as well as on the so-called
phenomenon of forced conversions in Pakistan.

The speakers in the end
acknowledged the efforts being made by IPS to probe forced conversions in
Pakistan and termed its report the first of its kind.