there are some archaic elements in our society. conformity of religious denomination makes sense but these days cast factor is impractical. there used to be a time when intra-cast people shared common customs and even professions, back then the cast was a reasonable indicator of wealth and social standing. These days its so mixed up that my people have long forgotten which cast they belong to. recently my dad traced his lineage based on his father's stories and went to the place from where we supposedly migrated. the stories proved to be true making atleast my father's side Khattaks. But does it matter, i dont think so.
if genetic implication is considered (which would be racist but just for the argument) then half of s person's genome is from his mother's side, so with a few generations of inbreeding, genetically i cannot be put into any predominant cast.
a friend of mine has a grave problem, he is at the age when young men are supposed be married nowadays. he is Shia... there are lots of eligible Shia ladies out there for him but a further restriction imposed upon themselves by his family is that she must also be Syed. This has put strain on the poor ol guy's mind so much so at times he thinks he'll gonna die a bachelor :P... that being said according to him his grandfather was a rebel in his own right and had wed his wife (his grandmother) from nepal!!!!!!!! but the old cast system hangs on still.
i am pretty sure no one on this forum would support the restriction of marrying within cast. its the ones not on this forum who should be discouraged. And by that i also mean parents. My dad is a doctor, and a good one too, even he thinks that the characteristics of a certain cast profession, say dhobi or kumhaar, stays in the family for five generations after that cast moved away from it and had diversified. well! lessons learned at an early age die hard.

Its an extremely backward thinking to consider only marriages 'within a cast' as eligible. And Even its Malik or Syed or whatever, they are all Muslims and there is no such thing in our religion. If we look logically, then it creates more problems for the society, like genetically problems in next generations, family issues, property problems etc.
To make things less complicated, a person should be allowed to marry whoever he/she wants, within or outside family/caste etc, as long as he/she is Muslim.

really depends on the local culture and traditions

khuda ne jab hum main koi fark nahi rakha tou hum koon hoty hian fark karnay waly

i dnt consider is necessary when we all are muslims which is the foremost thing so nthing matter expect ths thing..

jab Allah ne hiamein aik banaya hia tou hum insaan tou uss k agy kuch nai bool sakty agr Quran mien likha hia tou maan sakti hoon but looggooo ko tou r koi kaam nahi hai kehney k elawa

in Pakistan....
i still think... majority... thinks about casts...
and then religious setcs 2....

Majority in Pakistan still thinks that same cast and sect is very important factor in arrange marriages. But I don’t believe on cast system. Only religion matters; if the person is Muslim then no problem. People should ask only about religion while doing arrange marriages nothing else.