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.
