A revised draft of a forced conversion bill will be submitted to the Sindh Assembly soon.

More than two years after the first draft was presented, the latest version of the ‘Protection of Minorities Act, 2019’ will be submitted by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) MPA Nand Kumar Goklani.

In 2016 the Sindh Assembly passed a bill against forced conversions following numerous complaints that people, particularly children from minority groups were being forced to convert to Islam.

But when many religious parties took opposition to the bill and started protested against it, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) announced making amendments to the bill, and told the governor not to ratify it.

The governor had referred the draft back to the Assembly, suggesting the lawmakers to revisit the law.

Since then many forced conversion cases have been reported in Sindh with dozens of Hindus girls being forced to accept Islam.

The revised bill tries to address the concerns of religious parties.

It suggests rigorous imprisonment for anyone convicted of attempting to force another person to change their religion.