ISLAMABAD, March 7: Speakers at a seminar here on Tuesday called for the repeal of Hudood ordinances for, what they observed, trespassing on the privacy of the citizens and opening the gates of crime against women and minorities.

Joint Action Committee, Islamabad, a body of civil society and non-government organisations, had organised the seminar on “Repeal of Hudood Ordinances: Emerging Realities and Action Required” in connection with the International Women Day being observed on Wednesday.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Sherry Rehman said it was commonly believed that Hudood ordinances was the issue of elite women, which was wrong.

“Elite women have recourse to justice but the law encourages crimes against a majority of the poor and minority women, who are subjected to rape, gang rapes and harassment and are still unable to defend themselves,” she noted.

She said it was impossible for a woman to produce four eye- witnesses to her rape, and that too adult Muslim males, in a court. She wondered how could a gang raped woman from a non- Muslim community produce four Muslim males as witnesses in her case, a condition laid down in the Hudood ordinances for alleged victims of rape and gang-rape crimes in case they wanted to try their perpetrators.

Pakistan People’s Party, she said, was ready to back the government in case the latter wanted to repeal the five Hudood ordinances imposed by the late military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq without approval of parliament.

She said Hudood ordinances were the laws which were enacted by individuals in the name of Islam and had nothing to do with either Islam or the norms of a civilised society or even the spirit of public good.

The PPP, she said, would never allow the implementation of Taliban styled laws in Pakistan and added that time had come that the military regime itself repealed the Hudood ordinance, Ms Rehman said.

“Such laws were against the minority groups and not only badly harmed the social fabric of the country but also tarnished its image in the international community,” she further said.

In a recent instance of such law, she added, a Christian lady doctor was not appointed against a post in a Karachi hospital. The lady doctor fulfilled all the criteria but the government appointed a Muslim doctor in her stead because the latter was a Hafiz-i-Quran despite the fact that his actual marks were less than those of the lady doctor.

She also lamented the lack of democracy and shrinking middle class in Pakistan unlike that of India where the middle class was growing in the presence of democracy. Without a true democratic system with proper checks and balances, people would not be able to see justice and masses-friendly legislations, she added.

Justice (retired) Nasira Javed said in 1980 when there were no Hudood ordinances, there were only 70 women inmates in Pakistani jails but in 1990 the number had reached 4,500 mainly due to introduction of the ordinances. There were no latest figures available but she believed the number would be in tens of thousands.

Nasira Javed said 90 per cent of the rape victims were unable to register complaints with the police stations without presence of the male members of the family or were raped by police after registering their cases.

“A woman who wants to register a rap case is often considered as a woman of lose character. That’s why a majority of the victims did not open their mouth and rape cases go unreported,” she said.

Chairperson of the National Commission on Status of Women Arifa Syeda Zahra said Hudood ordinances was not the issue of women or men but of a civilised society. Amendments to the law would never serve the purpose of justice, humanity and civility but only a repeal could do so, she added.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Kanwar Khalid Younas held the feudal system and religio-political parties responsible for the Islamisation of the country’s laws and the inability of the masses and civil society to stand against such legislations. Eradication of feudal system, he said, could only develop a civil society in Pakistan.