ISLAMABAD, 16 November 2006 — Pakistan’s National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, yesterday adopted the Women’s Protection Bill that will put the crime of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of laws that rights groups have long criticized as unfair to women.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf praised lawmakers for passing the bill. “The movement we initiated to empower and protect women in 2004 will continue,” Musharraf said in a live televised address to the nation last night. “There has been no violation of the Qur’an or the Sunnah in this bill,” he added.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the adoption of the bill marked “a historic day” for the country. “Nothing is against Islam in this bill,” Aziz said, adding the amendments were made in consultation with Islamic scholars, lawmakers and human rights activists. “It is a historic bill because it will give rights to women and help end excesses against them,” Aziz told the assembly after the vote.
Under the amendments, the crime is now punishable by five years in jail or a 10,000 rupees ($165) fine, the official said. The Parliament also gave judges the discretion to decide whether to try a rape case in a criminal or Islamic court, the latter requiring an alleged victim to present four witnesses. The changes angered Islamist MPs who stormed out of the Parliament, in particular to protest the change giving judges discretion to try a rape case in a criminal court, where four witnesses would not have to be presented.
Leader of the Opposition Maulana Fazlur Rahman earlier told the assembly the change in the law would encourage free sex. “This is an attempt to create a free sex zone in Pakistan,” he said. “Existing laws are correct and should be maintained. The changes are not in line with Islamic teaching. The government has ignored our proposed amendments,” he added.
As Fazlur Rahman began to speak some members shouted slogans against the Hasba Bill recently adopted by the provincial assembly in the North West Frontier Province. But the leader of the opposition continued saying, “We will oppose the women’s bill and launch a countrywide movement against it. It is an un-Islamic bill that we cannot accept.” Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Sher Afgan Niazi intervened asking the opposition leader not to use Islam for political motives. Javed Ghamdi, a noted scholar has described the bill as un-Islamic. Opposition members of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party supported the bill.
The Women’s Protection Bill was seen both as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf’s commitment to his vision of “enlightened moderation” and a major battle in a long struggle between progressive forces and religious conservatives to set the nation’s course. The bill must be approved by Senate, the upper house of Parliament, before it becomes law.
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 offense under laws on adultery.
The Hudood laws, introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault. The main amendment approved yesterday that puts rape under the penal code 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 amendments also introduced the concept of statutory rape, outlawing sex with girls under 16. The Islamic code had banned sex with girls before puberty.
