KARACHI, Sept 9: Speakers at a meeting on Saturday hailing the proposed amendments to the Hudood Ordinance expressed concern over the reports that the government might bring some more changes in the laws as per demands of certain religio-political parties.

These views were expressed at a consultation meeting on “Women’s rights bill presented to the National Assembly, The Criminal Law Amendment (Protection of Women) Act 2006”, organised by the Pakistan Women Lawyers’ Association. The meeting was addressed by former chief of the National Commission on Status of Women Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi, Salima Ahmad, Nargis Rehman, Rashida Patel and others.

Extending their support to the government for the changes it brought in the discriminatory laws against women, the speakers said that the struggle for women’s rights would continue till all such discriminatory laws were repealed.

Under the proposed amendments, they said, rape had been taken out of the purview of the Hudood Ordinance and it was now being put under the Pakistan Penal Code. They said that it would provide relief to the women.

They further said that the cases of adultery, which were earlier dealt under the Hudood Ordinance, would not be registered by police unless the complainant approached the judge along with four witnesses and the judge and the witnesses allowed case registration. The speakers maintained that this would also help stop the victimization of the women.

For Qazaf, they said, a separate case had to be filed earlier. However, according to the proposed amendments if adultery was not proved the accuser would be punished under Qazaf by the same court in the same case. They said it would stop false accusations and cases and lesser number of innocent women would be victimized.

Both the Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan and PPP MNA Sherry Rehman, who were the main speakers at the meeting, could not come to attend the meeting, the organisers announced.