In a comment to Dawn, the British High Commission said: "The UK takes freedom of religion or belief very seriously and is committed to protecting minorities around the world. The new package of sanctions targets those violating fundamental freedoms. This includes Mian Abdul Haq, a holy man of the Bharchundi Sharif shrine in Ghotki, Sindh, who is responsible for forced marriages and forced religious conversions of non-Moslems and minors. This sanctions package does not include any other Pak national."
The sanctions effectively mean that designated individuals will be unable to do any business or undertake economic activity with UK citizens or businesses, and that they will be denied entry to the UK.
The pir, popularly known as Mian Mithu, is notorious in upper Sindh for his alleged involvement in the forced conversion and marriages of minor Hindu girls. He has denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
on several occasions and even claimed to have promoted religious harmony in Sindh.
Mr Mithu came in the spotlight after he allegedly converted a Hindu girl, Rinkle Kumari, who was later renamed Faryal, to Islam in February 2012, before her marriage to a local Moslem, Naveed Shah.
The conversion, Mian Mithu had claimed, was not forced. He found himself in the news yet again in September this year.
He made headlines when he reportedly led a large number of people who erupted into the streets in protest against an alleged incident of blasphemy
...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran...In 2008, the pir won a National Assembly seat on a PPP ticket, but the party denied him a ticket in 2012.
In 2015, Imran Khan
...aka
The Great Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality disorders...
attempted to invite him into the party fold but was forced to disassociate himself with the holy man after protests from the Hindu community.
In 2021,
Clerics expressed reservations on a draft bill, and a parliamentary panel ultimately rejected the bill despite protest from minority politicians.
The holy man is one of 30 individuals who have been sanctioned in total. Of these, 18, including Mr Mithu, have been targeted for "violations and abuses of human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
".
Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!...
sources in the Pakistain government expressed dismay over Pakistain’s name being tarnished because of this individual.