Indian lawyers to help draft Pakistani Hindu Marriages Registration Bill

Friday, January 07, 2011

(Photo : Hindu marriage ceremony offering )

The draft is expected to be tabled in the next session of the Pakistan National Assembly

Islamabad : Pakistan has invited prominent Indian lawyers to help draft its Hindu Marriages Registration Bill, expected to be tabled in the next session of the Pakistan National Assembly. 

A 10-member lawyers’ delegation, led by Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, is leaving for Pakistan on a five-day trip to enhance peace efforts as well as sign an MoU to build legal relations and a common platform for cooperation. 

During this trip, the group will also study the Muslim Personal Law, which has undergone a host of amendments in Pakistan. 

While any move to amend the 100-year old Muslim Personal Law raises hackles in India, Pakistan has successfully modified provisions relating to divorce, second marriage and other provisions related to ensuring women rights. 

Spearheaded by students and alumni of the premier law schools in India and Pakistan, the initiative will see a five-day trip of prominent Indian lawyers. The team also includes students and alumni of premier Indian law schools. The visit is organised by ‘The Jurists’, a registered trust formed by students of all the national law schools in India. 

“The highlight of the visit will be a meeting between the Indian delegation and the heads and students of leading law schools of Pakistan on December 24 to concretize the plans of better cooperation between the legal communities on both sides. Both the teams will sign a MoU on various topics related legal ties,” said Advocate Raghav Awasthi, a founder of ‘The Jurists’ and the initiative's national coordinator for India.

Both the sides will look into the possibility of resource-sharing between law students and researchers in the two countries, establishment of a peer-review mechanism for evaluation of legal research works and finalise the details for an India-Pakistan socio-legal debate and moot-court competition as annual fixtures, Awasthi said.

The delegation, which will meet Pakistani Federal Minister for Human Rights, Syed Mumtaz Alam Gilani, in Islamabad on December 26, will discuss a host of issues, including the draft of a Pakistani Hindu Marriages Registration Bill, which is expected to be tabled in the next session of the Pakistan National Assembly.