Women’s bill: NA body draft to go to house
LAHORE, Oct 10: Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Human Rights in National Assembly Farooq Amjad Mir has said only the Women Protection Law draft approved by the NA select committee will be presented in parliament for approval. Referring to criticism on PML president Shujaat Husain for negotiating with the MMA after the approval of the draft law while giving concluding remarks at a seminar on the “Proposed Women Protection Law” organised by ActionAid at the Lahore Press Club on Tuesday, he said talks with the ‘mullahs’ after the approval of the draft by the NA select committee was a political blunder.
“No talks were required with those making money out of religion because they could not give a correct opinion owing to vested interest,” he remarked. He said the government was being criticised for delaying repeal of Hudood Ordinance by the opposition political parties. Two of the opposition parties had remained in power but did not bother to repeal or amend the laws. The incumbent government was at least trying to amend the laws and had also replaced the ‘mullahs’ in the Islamic Ideology Council with religious scholars. PML member in NA select committee Mahnaz Rafi said she wanted the Hudood Ordinance to be repealed. The Quaid-i-Azam was also a supporter of equal rights for women but the NA members who were ‘mullahs from inside’ were opposed to it. Three of the four government commissions had recommended repeal of the Hudood laws but these had been protected due to the 1973 Constitution provision that no law could be promulgated against Quran and Sunnah.
She said the Hudood laws had existed for the past 27 years but ‘Hadd’ punishment had not been awarded even in a single case. She said there was much criticism on Gen Pervez Musharraf with reference to the ordinance but the fact remained that he was the first head of state in the history of the country who had given representation to women in the assemblies. Former Lahore High Court judge Nasira Javed Iqbal said the Hudood Ordinance was neither constitutional nor Islamic. Gen Musharraf could have repealed the laws when he came into power or on the recommendations of the commissions constituted to review the same but he had not done so. The government had decided to move the Women Protection Law in the assembly when he decided to visit the US.
She said there was no justification for talks on the law draft with ‘mullahs’ outside the assembly. The government should repeal the ordinance if it wanted to protect the rights of women. The government had no right to enforce Islamic ‘hudood’ before it converted Pakistan into an Islamic welfare state. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan director I. A. Rehman said the government continued to give an impression of being infallible but it had allowed outside interference in parliamentary affairs and yielded before the ‘mullahs’ not only on the Hudood Ordinance issue but also in case of inclusion of religious column in the passport. He said repeal of Hudood Ordinance was a political issue but the ‘mullahs’ were blackmailing the government because it had subverted the political process in the country. He said incomplete amendments to laws were likely to give rise to further complications. Awami National Party secretary-general Ehsan Wyne said the late Gen Ziaul Haq had promulgated the ordinance only for strengthening his stranglehold on power in the name of Islam. The law had nothing to do with Islam. Only women had been prosecuted under the laws and no man had been punished. The ordinances required to be repealed because of being exploitative.
Source: Dawn
Date:10/11/2006
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