ISLAMABAD, June 7: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader and MNA Dr Farida Ahmed Siddiqui has proposed administrative changes into the Hudood ordinance.

The proposed amendment would deprive police from the powers to arrest and keep in custody people under the Hudood laws until proven guilty in the courts of law and get punishment for those who file baseless cases.

Speaking at a press conference here, she said people, especially women, were facing problems in awarding punishments through courts to those who accused them with baseless charges under Hudood.

In Shariah, she said, there was the concept of ‘Qazif’ according to which those people were punished with 80 lashes who accused someone of baseless charges not proven in the courts.

Under the Hudood laws people had to file separate cases in the courts to award punishment to their tormentors which was not as per the spirit of Islam.

“Even if a woman was proven innocent in the court, the people who accused her are not punished. There should be a system under which women should write just a simple applications to the same courts from where they are acquitted to award punishment to those who had labelled baseless charges against them,” she said.

Changes be introduced into the ordinance to enable courts to award punishments under Qazf to those who brought baseless cases.

She said police should also be stripped off the powers under which they arrested and put behind the bars people accused under the Hudood laws. In a majority of cases, she said, police arrested people and did not even show the names of those who had accused them in the complaint.

Instead of police there should be investigation centres where Hudood cases be investigated before taking the cases to the court. Dr Siddiqui said she had filed two bills in the National Assembly seeking these changes in December last.—Our Reporter