THE National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) has few days ago called upon the president to extend the scope of women-friendly legislations to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) by invoking the powers bestowed upon him under Article 247 of the Constitution.

In a letter sent to the president, the NCSW stressed that the recent laws passed regarding women’s rights on harassment and acid throwing incidents should be extended to Fata.

By sending this letter, the commission had pointed out a very important issue related to the inhabitants of Fata. However, along with Fata the commission should also have demanded the extension of these laws to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata), which, like Fata, enjoys different status than that of rest of the country under Article 247 of the Constitution.

Interestingly, the National Commission on the Status of Women Ordinance 2000, the law under which the commission was set up in July 2000, has itself not been extended to Fata and Pata.

The inhabitants of these areas are unfortunate as the acts of Parliament are not applicable to Fata unless the president issues a notification in this regard. Similarly, the acts of Parliament as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly are not applicable to Pata unless the governor of the province with the approval of the president issues a notification about its applicability there.

While Pata are parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but still its people are treated differently. Similarly, under Article 1 of the Constitution Fata is part of Pakistan, but articles 246 and 247 make these areas different than rest of the country.

Same Article 247 prohibits any jurisdiction of the superior courts in the tribal areas unless the Parliament by law provides so. While the parliament extended the jurisdiction of superior courts to Pata through the Supreme Court and High Court (Extension of jurisdiction to certain tribal areas) Act, 1973, the same is yet to be extended to Fata.

Successive governments remained very selective about extension of laws to Fata and Pata and sometime very important laws, which are in vogue in rest of the country, have not been extended there. During the last couple of years several laws related to women have been introduced. So far, only one of these laws -- Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2004 (Act No.1 of 2005) – was extended to Pata in 2010, whereas none of these have been extended to Fata.

The said law was enacted in late 2004 and was published in official gazette in Jan 2005. This law is aimed at checking the practice of honour killing and inhuman customs of swara and vani.

The previous government had introduced three important women-related laws. First the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (Act No.1 of 2005) which is commonly known as the honour killing law. Through that law various amendments were made in the Pakistan Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code with the objective to check those provisions which supported the offenders in honour-related offences.

Similarly, for the first time the inhuman practice of giving females to rival groups in marriages for settling blood feuds was also declared a penal offence punishable up to ten years rigorous imprisonment.

The second law is the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2006, dealing with granting of bail to female offenders. That ordinance was first promulgated on July 8, 2006, and subsequently re-promulgated in March 2007 and July 2007. After remaining in the field for over four years and re-promulgated several time the ordinance lapsed in Aug 2010. However, during its presence the ordinance was not extended to Fata and Pata.

Similarly, the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006, commonly known as the Women Protection Act, was given assent by the President of Pakistan on Nov 30, 2006, after it was passed by the National Assembly and Senate. Despite the passage of more than five years the law is yet to be extended to the tribal areas and presently the controversial Hudood ordinance is applicable there in its original shape.

Through that law, drastic changes were made in the law and adultery and fornication are turned into non-cognizable offences. Now under the law a complaint has to be filed before the concerned court which has to decide to initiate proceedings in the case if sufficient evidence is available.

When the present government came to power two important legislations were made in 2010 to check harassment in public and at workplace. First, the Parliament enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2010, on Jan 30, 2010, through which amendments were made in section 509 of the PPC.

Prior to this amendment, the said section only dealt with words, gestures or act intended to insult modesty of a woman. In the amended section, the lawmakers have included some other offences also. This amendment is not women specific and deals with any person.

The second law -- Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010 -- was enacted on March 9, 2010, following which it was published in the official Gazette on March 11, 2010. The law makes it binding on the federal and provincial governments to appoint ombudsman on federal and provincial levels for checking harassment at workplace.

Recently, two other important laws were enacted to check anti-women practices and acid crimes. The president assented to these laws -- The Prevention of anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, 2011, Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (Acid Control and Acid Crime Act) 2011 -- in Dec 2011.

The first law provides for punishment for depriving women of their share of hereditary property; imposing forced marriage on a woman; and arranging marriage of a woman with Quran. The second law is aimed at punishing those causing hurt to anyone by using any corrosive substance including acid.

When the earlier laws have so far not been extended to tribal areas, therefore, it is expected that the recently introduced laws would face the same fate.

Legal experts dealing with criminal cases believe that the non-extension of laws to tribal areas always favour accused persons involved in different women-related offences.

They say that in Fata giving a female for settling feuds was not an offence as the law was not applied there. Similarly, the benefits of the Women Protection Act 2006 were not applicable to the women of tribal areas.