KARACHI, Aug 31: Speakers at a meeting rejected the amendments being suggested by the government to the Hudood ordinances and demanded that these laws be repealed immediately.

They were speaking at a meeting organised by the Aurat Foundation here on Thursday. The speakers suggested that if the government wanted such laws it could introduce another draft bill proposing the new laws in to the parliament so that it could be discussed and debated widely.

They said that the civil society members and other people were deeply concerned about the results of the suggested amendments as they did not believe that the amendments to a bad law could produce any meaningful results.

They said that though the amendment bill had tried to remove some of the lacunae and it was noted that some improvement had been made; however, unfortunately some changes had been made after the Select Committee went through it, which has resulted in even greater confusion.

They demanded that the Hudood ordinances, promulgated by military dictator General Ziaul Haq be repealed and if the state wished a new Hudood law be drafted and passed through the parliament after proper debate and discussion.

Justice (retd) Shaiq Usmani, Makhdoom Jameeluz Zaman, Sassi Palijo, Anis Haroon, Nuzhat Kidwai, Nasreen Siddiqui and others also spoke.