Husbands to be jailed for harassing wives!
ISLAMABAD: Under a new law husbands will be put behind bars on charges of sexually harassing their wives. Sources told The News that the Law Ministry is giving final touches to a draft legislation to be called Protection Against Domestic Violence of Women & Children (PADVWC), which is seen as the furtherance of the already enacted highly controversial Women Protection Act (WPA).
Unnerved by the ongoing judicial crisis, a source claimed, the government has chosen this point of time for this legislation to divert the attention of the masses to a controversy of different type. The source admitted that the proposed law, if enacted, would severely jolt Pakistan’s family system and fabric.
Another official source, who supports the legislation, said, “Unless social conditions are changed there is a dire need to seek aid of legislation to keep the family united honourably and with dignity and to protect women’s interests.”
He said the new legislation will cover all kind of harassment which causes distress to a woman and includes sexual or psychological abuse by the husband. However, another source involved in the consultation process said, “The foreign-funded west-loving NGOs and their women mouthpieces sitting in the National Assembly have pressed for the enactment of the new law.”
Clearly upset with the move, the source said the statement of object of the proposed legislation would though use the name of Islam while introducing the bill, the new law will encourage domestic problems of a family going in public.
The proposed law, it is said, will allow a woman sexually harassed by her husband or wronged even otherwise to approach a protection committee and then the court of law to fix the violator husband. Such a violator husband would get up to three years of jail. In the Islamic system, differences between husband and wife, no matter how serious they are, are encouraged to be resolved through the intervention of close relatives of the two sides.
While the move, according to one source, would promote Pakistan’s “soft image” in the Western world, it will endanger the family system of society. “We must rather tell the West that we are different from them and are proud of our religious and social values,” the source said, hinting that the proposed legislation would invite strong opposition from within and outside parliament.
The PADVWC, the sources said, will enable a magistrate to hear cases of domestic violence whereas protection committees will also be set up to check all kind of domestic violence against women and children. However, the draft law does not provide any relief for husbands being harassed by their wives. Domestic violence will rather not cover the husband.
As happens in the West, if a child is not found secure with his parent, his custody could be given to NGOs or service providers. Those who have seen the outcome of this particular Western law believes that such a law encourages children to leave their parents, who lose the custody of their children when the latter complained to the authorities of being mistreated by the parents. It is said that those children whose custody is given to social workers there generally grow up as flawed personality.
Under different statutes although most of the cases of domestic violence are covered, the government wants to collect them in one piece of legislation besides introducing some innovative clauses like sexual harassment of the wife at the hands of the husband.
One of the officials engaged in the discussion said, “Legislation may help out eradication of these offences if there is strict enforcement and implementation of laws, but this object can only be achieved if there is awareness among the masses of their rights and obligations. The only solution to the problems of domestic violence and child abduction is spread of education.”
An official document supporting the legislation says that despite constitutional safeguards the women enjoy in Pakistan they have not been able to get their legal rights and till the consciousness of rights and necessary awareness is attained recourse to legislation is the prime need.
The expression, “domestic violence”, the document says, is very wide in its amplitude and encompasses in its scope all types of violence, or cruelty resorted to, within the precincts of a home by the husband or family members of a family. But, it is said, the overwhelming majority of victims of domestic violence are women. “It may involve physical, sexual or psychological abuse of women,” the document said.
The expression “domestic violence”, the document says, includes “any willful conduct which: (a) (i) is of such a nature as is likely to drive the woman out of the house or to commit suicide or to injure herself; (ii) causes injury or danger to the life, limb or health (whether mental or physical) of the woman; (b) involves: (i) harassment which causes distress to a woman and includes, (ii) any act which compels the woman to have sexual intercourse against her with either with the husband or any of his relatives or with any other person; (iii) any act which is unbecoming of the dignity of the women; or (iv) any other act of omission of commission which is likely to cause mental torture or mental agony to the woman.”
Source: The News
Date:4/28/2007
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
