ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistan Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights has unanimously approved the Hindu Marriage Bill, which will enable the said community to get their marriages registered and to appeal in courts of law in cases of separation.
In addition, there are penalties for violating the provisions of the bill, which allows Hindus to finally have a proof of marriage document.
The bill passed on Monday also allows separated Hindu persons to remarry.
Clause 17 of the bill states that a Hindu widow "shall have the right to re-marry of her own will and consent after the death of her husband provided a period of six months has lapsed after the husband's death".
Minority member in National Assembly Ramesh Kumar Vankwani called the move a new year's gift for Hindus living in Pakistan.
"Today, we are proud to be Hindu Pakistanis after the approval of the bill. Hindus will now be able to get registered their marriages and also apply for divorce under family laws," he said.
Top constitutional expert Senator Aitzaz Ahsan said the bill is in accordance with the essence of the Constitution.
The bill will be applicable to all Pakistan minus Sindh province which last year separately adopted its own Hindu marriage law.
Earlier in September, the National Assembly had passed the Hindu Marriage Bill 2016, paving way for the adoption of a comprehensive and widely-acceptable family law for Hindus living in Pakistan, reports the Dawn.
Hindus make up approximately 1.6 per cent of Pakistan's Muslim-majority 190 million population, but they have not had any legal mechanisms to register their marriages since independence in 1947.
Christians, the other main religious minority, have a British law dating back to 1870 regulating their marriages.
Geeta, Deaf-Mute Indian Girl In Pakistan
(01 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 3, 2015 shows Indian woman Geeta speaking with sign language during an interview at the Edhi Foundation in Karachi. Deaf and mute, Geeta has been stuck in Pakistan for 13 years, unable to return to her native India because she cannot remember or explain exactly where she's from. News of Geeta plight surfaced in 2012 but no progress was made in tracing her roots. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(02 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 3, 2015 shows Indian woman Geeta performing rituals at a women's shelter run the Edhi Foundation in Karachi. Deaf and mute, Geeta has been stuck in Pakistan for 13 years, unable to return to her native India because she cannot remember or explain exactly where she's from. News of Geeta plight surfaced in 2012 but no progress was made in tracing her roots. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(03 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 3, 2015 shows Indian woman Geeta (R) speaking with sign language as Faisal Edhi, son of Abdul Sattar Edhi, the chairman of Edhi Foundation looks on during an interview at the Edhi Foundation in Karachi. Deaf and mute, Geeta has been stuck in Pakistan for 13 years, unable to return to her native India because she cannot remember or explain exactly where she's from. News of Geeta plight surfaced in 2012 but no progress was made in tracing her roots. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(04 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 3, 2015 shows Indian woman Geeta writing notes in her notebook at a women's shelter run the Edhi Foundation in Karachi. Deaf and mute, Geeta has been stuck in Pakistan for 13 years, unable to return to her native India because she cannot remember or explain exactly where she's from. News of Geeta plight surfaced in 2012 but no progress was made in tracing her roots. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(05 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 3, 2015 shows Indian woman Geeta writing notes in her notebook at a women's shelter run the Edhi Foundation in Karachi. Deaf and mute, Geeta has been stuck in Pakistan for 13 years, unable to return to her native India because she cannot remember or explain exactly where she's from. News of Geeta plight surfaced in 2012 but no progress was made in tracing her roots. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(06 of09)
Open Image ModalPakistani member of the United Nations Human Rights Council and former human rights minister of Pakistan, Ansar Burney (C) shows a photograph of Geeta ,21, an Indian girl that lives in Pakistan during a press conference in Amritsar on October 13, 2012. Burney visited to India to try and find the family of deaf and mute Indian girl Geeta ,21, that has been stuck in Pakistan for the past 13 years, after being found in a train that crossed into Pakistan. (credit:NARINDER NANU via Getty Images)
(07 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 8, 2012 shows Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl, holding a book on Hindu faith at a charity in Karachi. When South Asia's nuclear rivals celebrate 65 years of independence next week, a deaf and mute Indian woman stranded in Pakistan will be thinking of only one thing: how to get home to see her family. Geeta, 21, was found by police 13 years ago, sitting alone and disorientated on a train that had come across the border into Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(08 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 8, 2012 shows Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl, trying to explain her story through her limited skills in Hindi writing during an interview at a charity in Karachi. When South Asia's nuclear rivals celebrate 65 years of independence next week, a deaf and mute Indian woman stranded in Pakistan will be thinking of only one thing: how to get home to see her family. Geeta, 21, was found by police 13 years ago, sitting alone and disorientated on a train that had come across the border into Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)
(09 of09)
Open Image ModalThis photograph taken on August 8, 2012 shows Geeta, a deaf and mute Indian girl, browsing through a book on Hindu faith during an interview at a charity in Karachi. When South Asia's nuclear rivals celebrate 65 years of independence next week, a deaf and mute Indian woman stranded in Pakistan will be thinking of only one thing: how to get home to see her family. Geeta, 21, was found by police 13 years ago, sitting alone and disorientated on a train that had come across the border into Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. (credit:RIZWAN TABASSUM via Getty Images)