LAHORE, Oct 21: The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday referred the Punjab Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill 2003 to the house committee amid protest by the opposition.

Dr Anjum Amjad of the treasury bench introduced the bill while citing rising figures of domestic violence during the last three years.

She claimed that the objective of the bill was to check violence within four walls. Civilized societies of the world have controlled this kind of human behaviour.

The opposition had other ideas about the bill. According to Ahsanullah Waqas of the MMA, the bill would destroy social fabric of the country and restrict entry of husband to home.

Another opposition member asserted that Islam haD its own legal mechanism to control domestic violence.

The bill, he said, was a strange amalgamation of Islamic and western values which would only create further social and legal confusion. No one can condone violence by a human being against another. But, there must be a way to deal with any such situation.

“Implanting imported values in any country creates problems, and Pakistan will not be any exception,” he warned.

Other opposition members still wanted to speak when the chair referred it to the house committee. This triggered protest in the house and Rana Sanaullah told the chair that it could not refer the bill to the committee without letting every objector to speak on it.

Citing the Rules of Business, Rana Sanaullah insisted that the chair has trampled the rules and could not do so. But the retired group captain, Mushtaq Kiani, sitting in for the speaker, insisted that he allowed one of the objector to raise objections and was under the impression that the gentleman was representing the entire opposition. Now since he has referred the bill to the house committee, nothing can be done.

The opposition was still insisting that the chair could not do what it has done when the house was adjourned to meet at 10am on Wednesday.

There were five more bills in the agenda of the assembly which could not be moved because of lack of time.