Draft of Hudood amendments
Rape to be tried under criminal law
* Zina complaints to be made directly to court
* Publication of identity of rape victims to be punishable by 6 months in prison
ISLAMABAD, Aug 01 2006: The proposed amendments to the Hudood Ordinances include removing the offence of zina bil jabr, or rape, from the ordinances and adding it to the Pakistan Penal Code. According to a draft of the amendment bill, titled the Criminal Law Amendment (Protection of Women) Bill, 2006, the Quran and Sunnah do not require taazir punishment for zina, and thus taazir punishment for zina is being removed from the ordinance, which now comprises only zina liable to hadd. The bill explicitly states that it is designed to “provide relief and protection to women against misuse and abuse of law”.
The punishment for rape will be death or life imprisonment. The requirement of four witnesses has been overlooked and now cases would be decided based on indirect or circumstantial evidence. The draft amendments also make sex with a girl below the age of 16, with or without her consent, the offence of rape. “This accords both with the need to protect the weak, which the Quran repeatedly emphasises, and the norms of international legal obligations,” says the draft bill. Any crime not mentioned in the Quran or Sunnah, or for which no punishment has been prescribed therein, is liable to taazir, says the draft. Such crimes are being taken out of both the qazf and zina ordinances and added to the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860. Briefly, these include kidnapping, forcing a woman to elope for marriage, and buying or selling people for prostitution.
The requirement of the testimony of four adult male Muslims as witnesses is to be expunged from the ordinance, and the requirement of the testimony of four adult people as witnesses is to be added to the Law of Evidence, 1984. The draft bill contains procedures to stop the plethora of cases where women are accused of adultery. It states that to institute a case of zina, the accuser must present four credible eyewitnesses to the offence in the competent court. If the judge is satisfied that this condition has been met, he may summon the accused. The bill says only a sessions court may take cognisance of zina and qazf cases and the offences have been made bailable so the accused do not languish in jail. “The police will have no authority to arrest any one in such cases unless so directed by the Court of Sessions and such directions cannot be issued except wither to compel attendance in court or in the event of a conviction.”
The publication of the identity of victims of rape without the victim’s consent is also being made an offence, liable to punishment of six months in prison and/or a fine. The requirement of two adult Muslim witnesses as proof of qazf (wrongful accusation) is to be removed, and a new article included in the Law of Evidence Ordinance, which provides for proof in the form of a confession by the accused, or the commission of qazf in the presence of the court. The bill also seeks to make failure to prove zina an offence liable to qazf. “Conviction will follow the failure of the zina prosecution and will not be contingent on the initiation of fresh legal proceedings,” it says.
The draft would delete the definition of marriage in the zina ordinance as a “valid marriage”, on the grounds that this has led to several cases of women being punished for zina after getting married for a second time only for the reason that they could not provide documentary evidence that they had divorced their previous husbands.
Another amendment, to the Family Courts Act of 1964, provides a procedure for the dissolution of a marriage where the husband accuses his wife of zina and the wife denies it. The draft is to be presented to the federal cabinet when it meets tomorrow (Wednesday), and then tabled in the National Assembly session starting on August 4.
Source: Daily Times
Date:8/1/2006
” 
” 
” 
” 
