PAKISTAN: Pakistan votes to roll back Islamic law on rape

Pakistan's lower house of parliament voted on Wednesday (November 15) to put the crime of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of Islamic laws that rights groups have long criticised as unfair to women. The Women's Protection Bill was seen as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened moderation" and a major battle in a struggle between progressive forces and religious conservatives over the Muslim nation's course. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the assembly after the vote that it was "a historic bill" because it would give rights to women and help end excesses against them. "This is part of a process through which women will get their rights. This will help to lessen to a great extent the unfair and illegal treatment meted out to women," Aziz told reporters. "But we are fully aware of the fact that we still have a lot more to do," he added. The Islamic laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, were introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979. They made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault. The main amendment approved on Wednesday takes rape out of the sphere of the religious law and puts it under the penal code. That does away with the requirement for four male witnesses and will allow convictions to be made on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence. The amendment bill must be approved by the upper house of parliament before it becomes law. The amendments were fiercely opposed by an alliance of Islamist parties, which make up the main opposition bloc in parliament. However, opposition members of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's more liberal Pakistan People's Party supported the bill. "It is something that (is) partial. It is half-way. We would have liked to see a total repeal of these anti-women and discriminatory laws which are the Hudood Ordinances passed in 1979 by General Zia," Sherry Rehman, a senior member of Bhutto's party told Reuters. Rehman said her party had always struggled for the repeal of the Hudood ordinances and had felt that since there was some relief provided to women in this particular bill, they would not stand in its way. The amendments also introduced the concept of statutory rape, outlawing sex with girls under 16. The Islamic code had banned sex with girls before puberty. Islamist lawmakers walked out of parliament, boycotting the vote, after opposition leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman told the assembly the change to the law would encourage free sex. "We have our own values; we have our own traditions. This is a conspiracy to totally destroy our values and traditions," Raheela Qazi, parliamentarian from the Islamic Alliance MMA told reporters after they walked out of the House. Qazi said the changes were not in line with Islamic teaching. But Aziz disagreed. "All the legislation in Pakistan is done according to the Koran and Sunnah (teachings of Prophet Mohammad), and no one has the authority to, God forbid, make a law that is against the teachings of the Koran and Sunnah," Aziz said. In an apparent concession to conservatives, an amendment was introduced shortly before the vote setting down punishment of up to five years in prison for extra-marital sex, though sex outside marriage had always been an offence under laws on adultery. The government abandoned an attempt to pass the bill in September in the face of a threat from Rehman's Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance to pull out of the national and provincial assemblies if it was passed. The Islamist leader did not repeat that threat on Wednesday, and analysts said it was unlikely the religious parties would risk losing influence. The debate came two days after Islamists ruling North West Frontier Province passed a controversial bill to introduce what critics said would be a Taliban-style religious police force. The Islamist-led provincial government succeeded in getting a watered-down version of its bill adopted on Monday (November 13) after the Supreme Court last year blocked it, saying several clauses were unconstitutional. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said in a television address to the nation later on Wednesday the bill was part of a government campaign to empower women launched in 2000, soon after he seized power in a bloodless coup. "We should be proud of it," Musharraf said. "The time has come for the moderate elements in Pakistan to come forward and show their real force to these extremists and tell the extremists they will have no more say in Pakistan," he said. jrc/

ITN Source | November 16, 2006

Tags:. .excesses. .bhuttos. .unfair. .outlawing. .frontier