Prevent new converts from marrying immediately: Pak minority body

Pakistan's National Commission for Minorities has recommended that the government enact a law whereby new converts from non-Muslim communities are prevented from marrying for at least six months after conversion, as part of measures to curb forcible conversions.
The recommendation from the newly-formed body of minorities was made against the backdrop of a nationwide controversy over allegations of the forcible conversion and marriage of three Hindu women from Sindh province, which has Pakistan's largest population of Hindus.
The National Commission for Minorities, during its second meeting yesterday, further recommended that a judicial magistrate, and not a police officer, should independently record the statements of converts.
Currently, after receiving a complaint from the family of a convert, police registers an FIR under Article 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code and a police officer records the statement that is produced in court in the form of a charge-sheet.
However, minority communities claim statements recorded by a police officer are "mostly never based on facts", The Express Tribune said in a report.
There is a provision in Article 164 of CrPC under which a judicial magistrate can record the statement but the law is not implemented on the pretext that the magistrate is a judicial officer and should not record statements in cases that he has to ultimately decide.
The National Commission for Minorities, which is headed by the Minister for National Harmony, is a multi-party forum that includes two parliamentarians each from the Muslim, Hindu and Christian communities and one representative from the Sikh and Parsi communities.