Plea seeking legislation for age limit on religious conversion – Contempt petition against Federal Secretaries dismissed as premature

LAHORE : The Lahore High Court has dismissed a contempt of court petition filed against the Federal Secretary Law and Secretary Religious Affairs for failing to legislate an age limit for conversion of religion.

Chief Justice Lahore High Court, *Justice Alia Neelum* heard the contempt petition.

The petition was filed by *Arayach Foundation* through its counsel *Azhar Saeed*. The petitioner contended that the court had previously directed the federal government to legislate on fixing an age limit for religious conversion, particularly to prevent forced conversion of minor girls from minority communities, but no progress had been made despite the court order.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Alia Neelum observed that legislation is a constitutional process that requires time, involving the Cabinet, Ministry of Law, Council of Islamic Ideology and Parliament.

The court held that since the government is already in the process of legislation, contempt proceedings at this stage would be premature.

Subsequently, the court dismissed the contempt petition as premature, while the main constitutional petition seeking fixation of 18 years as the minimum age for religious conversion is still pending.