ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: The select committee of the National Assembly on the Criminal Law Amendment (Protection of Women) Act 2006, tabled by the government in the National Assembly on Aug 21, met here on Wednesday to review the bill clause by clause.

Law Minister Wasi Zafar said that the committee, presided over by Sardar Nasrullah Dareshak, reviewed 10 of the 30 clauses of the bill and claimed that a consensus had been achieved.

The law minister’s claim was disputed by committee members belonging to the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), who said that so far, the committee had reviewed only two clauses.

Members of the committee belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) continued their boycott of the meeting terming the entire bill un-Islamic and an attempt by the rulers to modify the Hudood laws in the name of women’s rights only to appease foreign countries.

Speaking at a news conference, Sherry Rehman and Raja Pervez Ashraf of the PPP said the government had actually reviewed eight clauses in their absence and now the committee had agreed to review the same clauses again on their request.

Ms Rehman, who is also the PPP’s information secretary, accused the government of having changed its own bill, introduced in the National Assembly. Citing an example, she said, the government had replaced the words “four adult witnesses” with “four Muslim adult witnesses” in Article 203(A) relating to the punishment in a rape case. She said that it discriminated against minorities and contradicted Article 25 of the Constitution, which guaranteed equal rights to all citizens.

Ms Rehman said that Article 502(B) also came under discussion and all the members were of the view that rape case should not be reported by the media without the victim’s consent.

The PPP leaders said the party members were giving their inputs on the bill but they were still calling for the total repeal of the Hudood laws.

The committee will meet again on Thursday to review the remaining clauses of the bill.