PESHAWAR: The women rights activists at a conference here on Thursday criticised the Council of Islamic Ideology for turning down the proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa domestic violence prevention law, stating whenever any pro-women law was drafted certain elements started feeling threatened.

“What happened to the domestic violence bill in the Council of Islamic Ideology is in fact violence against women,” said Neelam Toru, the chairperson of Provincial Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), at the conference on ‘Prevention of Violence against Women’ organised by GIZ.

Meraj Humayun, an MPA and chairperson of women caucus in provincial assembly, said what happened to the domestic violence bill was unexpected for them. “We had spent three years on the draft of the bill and had also included Mufti Janan of JUI-F in consultation process, but still it was rejected by CII,” she added.

Ms Humayun regretted that an official of the law department sent the bill to CII thus wasting the efforts made by them in drafting the proposed law. “We have now been asking the council to explain in clear terms which of the provisions are objectionable to them and how they are against the Islamic injunctions,” she said, adding that CII blocked their development and stopped them from moving ahead.

MPA says rejection of draft law by the advisory body unexpected for them

Ms Toru said that a section officer of the law department sent the bill to CII, which was only an advisory body having no legislative powers. She questioned where the members of CII were when any acid attack on a woman took place or a child was molested.

She asked why they got insecure when any pro-women bill was drafted. “We are upset why only this bill was sent to CII for advice as no other bill was ever sent to it by the provincial government. This was first ever bill sent to it,” she added.

Christian Kapfensteiner, the team leader of PVAW project of GIZ, said that in 2011 they had received mandate from provincial government to support the social welfare department on prevention of violence against women. “Now this project is coming to an end,” he added.

He said that an expert group was constituted mutually by PCSW and GIZ to assist the commission on legal matters. He added that the commission was assisted to draft the proposed domestic violence law and the acid crime control law.

Mehar Khan, a representative of German Embassy, said that German government was a committed partner in PVAW and had supported the provincial government in that regard. She said that they had helped to bring improvement in situation of women through better service delivery and in that regard shelters were strengthened for them in Mardan and Peshawar.

Provincial Senior Minister Sikander Hayat Khan Sherpao appreciated the support of GIZ through the Good Governance Programme stating that its support had helped in enhancing quality of service for female victims of violence. He said that violence against women was an obstacle in development and it amounted to depriving women of their basic rights.

The minister said that the province was faced with multiple problems including decade long militancy and influx of displaced persons from Malakand as well as tribal areas that had affected the social fabric and culture of the region.

“Despite all odds the government was committed to eradicating violence against women,” he said, adding that bills on acid crime control and strengthening the PCSW had been finalised and would be enacted in near future.

Jamshed Qazi, the country representative of UN Women, said that in KP they were hoping to roll out buses specifically for women commuters in three cities including Peshawar, Abbottabad and Mardan.

He said that with the support of Japanese government, the project would be launched in collaboration with the provincial government and it was expected that around 200,000 women would be benefitted from it per year.

Referring to the recent statement of CII regarding permissibility of light beating of wives, Mr Qazi said that Pakistan was signatory to several human rights treaties under which such things were not permissible. He said there was no concept of light beating just like there could not be a light rape or a light acid attack.

The chairman department of journalism and mass communication, Prof Altafullah Khan, bureau chief of a private television Farzana Ali, a representative of social welfare department Saeeda Nudrat and a legal expert from Fata Disaster Management Authority Mohammad Ali also highlighted different aspects of PVAW in KP and FATA including the role of media in this regard.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2016