ISLAMABAD, March 29: People's Party Parliamentarians member of National Assembly Sherry Rehman on Monday demanded of the government to repeal Hudood ordinances which discriminates against women.
It is against the Constitution of Pakistan which prohibits any laws that discriminate against women and minorities and should be repealed, the journalist-turned parliamentarian said in a statement.
Arguing against the law, Ms Rehman cited 20 reasons to Hudood laws and said these were introduced by Gen Ziaul Haq without public or parliamentary debate to "misuse" religion to legitimise his blatant and unconstitutional usurpation of power.
The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) has also recommended a total repeal of the Ordinances for being repugnant to Islam, she maintained. Similarly Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid had also observed that the Ordinances were drafted in a hurry and were not in conjunction with the principles of Quran and Sunnah.
In each of the four penal laws, with the exception of a couple of provisions on Hadd punishments, she observed, the rest of the provisions in the form of Tazir were practically the same as provisions under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
If the objective of these laws was to provide Hadd punishments for certain offences, then these could have been introduced in the PPC, which was abundantly amended to introduce Arabic names for already mentioned offences in the same code.
She said, the property laws, qazf, and prohibition laws were also repugnant to the spirit of Islam. Islam forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, colour, caste, or creed.
Ms Rahman said minorities are victims of double jeopardy under this law, because while their testimony is second-rated, punishments opposed to their own Shariah creed are still applicable to them in an arbitrary manner, she said.
The NCSW has also found that most of the sentences were handed down under Tazeer, or punishments under the PPC. However, findings reveal that Hudood Ordinances remain the single most misused laws to keep poor, dispossessed women in police lock-up without access to defence counsel or speedy justice.
She said, the notion that the Zina Ordinance was not an issue since 90 per cent of women get acquitted under it, ignores completely the social realities in any country, particularly semi-feudal Pakistan.
These laws, the MNA maintained, also encourage honour killings and injuries because they allow these crimes to be compoundable offences. Statistics reveal that most honour crimes are perpetrated by close kin or family members, who are then conveniently forgiven by the heirs of the victim.
Only Pakistan and Saudi Arabia accept these ordinances in their totality while other Muslim countries have rejected or amended them in the interests of justice and equality, she observed.
Prior to the Ordinances, adultery was punishable only on the male, while rape on a wife who was under-age or minor still was punishable, she said, adding that Hudood laws have made the rape of wife, minor, legal and the law of Qazf was added to the list of offences.
Under the Ordinances a large number of women have been tortured and molested in police lock-up. From 1980 to 87 the Federal Shariat Court alone heard 3,999 appeals of 'zina' involving female prisoners.
She said, under the ordinance the minorities were rated as second-class citizens and not given the right to be witnesses in cases that fall under the Hadd.
Similarly in many marriages where the parties fall apart before Rukhsati or consummation of the marriage, the groom has known to rape the bride to seek vengeance before leaving her. Under the current law this is no offence.
These laws further discriminate against women as they de-link puberty from adulthood. These laws also reduce the testimony of women to half. Rajm, or stoning to death, as a punishment, is never mentioned in the Quran. It is only mentioned in the Sunnah.
