ISLAMABAD, Sept 2: The draft of the bill for protection of women’s rights will be reviewed again on Monday to satisfy the People’s Party Parliamentarians and Muttahida Qaumi Movement members in the house select committee.
Certain changes made in the draft at the behest of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had angered some members of the select committee who boycotted the last meeting and threatened to withdraw their support, sources said.
PPP representative in the committee Sherry Rehman and the MQM’s Haider Abbas Rizvi have expressed almost similar reservations against the changes in the draft.
Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had deliberated on the bill behind the scene with MMA leaders Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed to get their input to prepare a consensus document.
Though the government failed to arrange a promised meeting between its nominees and the MMA’s experts outside the select committee, Chaudhry Shujaat had received certain points to make the bill acceptable for the alliance, the sources said.
They said the changes criticised by the PPP and MQM members were made on the proposal of the MMA and they pertained to making zina punishable under the Pakistan Penal Code.
MNA Sherry Rehman has told the government that no new clause can be inserted in the draft tabled in the National Assembly and it is unacceptable to her party.
An MQM legislator told Dawn that his party’s objection to the insertions in the bill were almost similar to that of the PPP.
Sources in the PML, however, expressed optimism that a consensus would be developed on the draft as the government might drop the clause to which the PPP and the MQM were objecting.
