The much-awaited enactment of law on domestic violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has further been delayed when recently the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly referred the relevant bill to a select committee.

The civil society members, who have been lobbying for the enactment of the law for the last many years, were hopeful that the KP Domestic Violence against Women (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2019, would be passed in the assembly’s session on Oct 14 as the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) enjoys absolute majority in the house. The bill was instead referred to the committee after resistance from lawmakers of religious parties.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the only province in the country where successive government continue to drag its feet over the passage of the bill and there is no exclusive law to deal with the issue of domestic violence. While a much watered down version of the bill was introduced as compared to the previous draft, but still the members from religious parties are adamant to support it.

The present bill was drafted in the light of the findings of Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which had vetted the draft law during the previous PTI led government in the province. Drastic changes were made in the earlier draft and the bill was introduced in the assembly on Feb 11, 2019.

The bill was taken up for consideration after eight months on Oct 14, but it could not be passed. Some of the MPAs of religious parties insisted that many clauses of the bill were un-Islamic, so the advice of the Council of Islamic Ideology should be again sought instead of holding a discussion in the assembly.

Under Rule 94 of the Provincial Assembly of KP Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988, the select committee shall make a report after a bill has been referred to it within the time fixed by the assembly. If the assembly has not fixed a timeframe, the report shall be prepared by the committee within three months.

In the present bill, the government has narrowed down its scope. The previous draft defined an “aggrieved person” as “any man, woman, or any vulnerable person who is or has been in a domestic relationship with the accused and who alleges to have been subjected to any act of domestic violence by the accused.”

The present bill defines a victim as “the women against whom domestic violence has been committed.”

In the light of the findings of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), the provincial government had made changes in the 2015 version of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill. The present bill now lacks clarity on different issue including the definition of “domestic violence” and punishments provided for this offence.

Unlike Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the other provinces had not referred their bills to the CII before enactment of respective laws.

The council had pointed out “flaws” in almost every provision of that draft in 2016 following which the government had reviewed it and prepared a new draft.

One of the major findings of the CII was regarding the age of the child mentioned in the earlier draft. The government has now removed the definition of a “child” from the bill.

The previous draft defined a child as a person who has not attained the age of 18 years at the time of commissioning of the offence. The laws in Balochistan and Sindh are having definition of a “child.”

The previous draft also carried a very comprehensive definition of “domestic violence” including several sub-sections and also provisions of Pakistan Penal Code. That definition included different aspects of domestic violence including emotional, psychological and verbal abuse; harassment; physical abuse; stalking; sexual abuse; trespass; economic abuse; wrongful confinement; criminal force; criminal intimidation; assault; etc.

Now the definition of “domestic Violence” in the bill includes: “the violence committed by the accused against the victim with whom the accused is in a domestic relationship.”

Moreover, “violence” is defined as “an act committed against the human body of the victim including, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, economic abuse and stalking and abetment of such acts.”

“Economic abuse” is defined as denial of food, clothing or shelter in domestic relationship to the victim by the accused under legal obligation in accordance with the accused’s income.

“Psychological abuse” is defined as psychological deterioration of aggrieved person which may result in anorexia, suicide attempt or clinically proven depression resulting from accused oppressive behavior or limiting freedom of movement of the aggrieved person.

The bill provides any person who commits an act of domestic violence shall be deemed to have committed an offence under this law and shall be liable to be punished for such imprisonment and fine as provided for the said offence in Pakistan Penal Code 1860.

So under the proposed law an accused would only face punishment for committing domestic violence if the same is an offence under the PPC. The proposed law does not provide any punishment for acts which amount to domestic violence but are not included in the PPC.

In Pakistan, Sindh was the first province where the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2013, was enacted in March 2013. In Balochistan, the assembly had passed The Balochistan Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2014, in Feb 2014. Similarly, in Punjab the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act, 2016, was enacted in Feb 2016.

The laws in Sindh and Balochistan define a “vulnerable person” as a person who is vulnerable due to old age, mental illness or handicap or physical disability or other special reasons. The law of Baluchistan also include person employed as a domestic servant as a vulnerable person.

Almost all of these laws provide for setting up of protection committees having different composition and also appointment of protection officers assigned with different functions.

Under the laws in other three provinces the concerned court is empowered to issue a protection order in favour of an aggrieved person if it is satisfied that any violence has been committed or is likely to be committed and issue certain directives to the accused/defendant.

The KP bill provides for setting up of 10-member district protection committees comprising the deputy commissioner concerned as the chairperson and other members including executive district officer, health, district officer social welfare, district public prosecutor, a representative of district police officer, four persons from civil society and chairperson of the concerned District Committee on the Status of Women, who will also serve as its secretary.

The laws in Balochistan and Sindh provide for appointment of protection officers, whereas that of Punjab provides for appointment of women protection officer. However, there is no provision for protection officer in the KP bill.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2019