October 05, 2006	Thursday	Ramazan 11, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Civil society organisations here on Wednesday called for a grand alliance of those who had been affected by Hudood ordinances to fight for the repeal of the man- made discriminatory laws.

The call was made at a legislative watch programme “Repeal of the Hudood Ordinances vs Protection of Women Bill 2006” organised by Aurat Foundation at a local hotel.

Presided over by National Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra, the participants of the programme unanimously rejected Hudood ordinances by terming them a product of military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq who had used Islam not only to perpetuate his illegitimate rule but also to give an opportunity to religious groups to victimise women in the name of Islam.

The panel of speakers included PML Senior Vice-President Begum Yaqut Jamilur Rehman, PPP MNA Nayyar Bokhari, ANP Senior Vice-President Haji Mohammad Adeel, Chief Coordinator Pakistan Labour Party Farooq Tariq, Pakistan Law and Justice Commission member Justice (retired) Nasira Javid Iqbal and Naeem Mirza of Aurat Foundation.

Almost all of the speakers lashed out at the government for bypassing the committee of the parliament while proposing amendments to Hudood ordinances and wholly relying on the MMA-PML-Q Joint Ulema Committee, which had proposed amendments that were even worse than the original Hudood laws and offered no relief to women.

Despite amendments to the draft bill of the Women Protection Bill, the civil society members said they had serious reservations over the clauses related to stoning to death, the issue of determining the age of adulthood and leaving out the definition of Qazaf.

Dr Arfa said the fate of the country had been in the hands of Maulvis since 1948. She said successive civil governments could not debate on the Hudood ordinances since Gen Zia’s government.

She said it was encouraging to know that after 27 years the government had admitted flaws in the Hudood ordinances, but now it seemed that the government was still not interested to repeal them.

Justice Nasira highlighted technical loopholes in the ordinances. Hudood ordinances, she added, were not the laws of Allah but Ziaul Haq, which could be changed and even abolished if they added to the miseries of the poor and weaker segments of the society instead of helping them. She said there was no mention of ‘Zina bil Jabr’ in Quran but the ordinance dealt it with ‘Zina bil Raza’ which was discriminatory against the woman raped.

Since the implementation of these ordinances, she said, the incidents of rape and gangrape had increased as it demanded four witnesses even for rape (Zina bil Jabr).

She said the recent debate over the amendments to the ordinances had been launched by the government to weaken its political opponents as there was lack of consensus between the PPP and the MMA.

PPP MNA Nayyar Bokhari said his party favoured the repeal of Hudood ordinances since day one. It supported the government on the issue of amendments to the ordinance as it was part of PPP manifesto.

If the government was sincere in passing the Women Protection Bill from the Parliament, it could have done so as it had simple majority in the parliament. The general (Musharraf) could have passed this before November 9, 2002 if he was interested in it, he added.

He questioned the sincerity of the government for opening the second channel of the MMA-PML-Q Ulema Committee after the select committee of the parliament had passed the draft bill of the Women Protection Bill with consensus.

Begum Yaqut Jamilur Rehman of PML said her government took initiative and brought the bill to the National Assembly. She claimed that few opposition members also supported the government’s efforts in this regard.

She said the government wanted to pass the bill in the last session of the parliament but due to some technicalities it could not do so. She was optimistic that the bill would be passed in the next session to be held after Eid.