ISLAMABAD, March 12: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Sherry Rehman has criticized the female legislators of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for opposing honour killing bills and other pieces of legislation aimed at empowering women.

Talking to Dawn, the PPP MNA said the MMA government had already started Talibanization of NWFP by introducing bills such as ban on women’s photographs and entertainment.

Ms Rehman said the MMA women legislators were openly stating that they had come to parliament to send other women home. She asked the MMA women MNAs to resign from the assembly, if they were opposed to the women’s participation in national affairs. She regretted that whenever a bill on women’s rights was tabled in the National Assembly it was made controversial by labelling it as Islamic or Un-Islamic.

The PPP MNA said she had recently submitted three more bills on women issues to the National Assembly. These are: the Bill to Repeal Hudood Laws of 1979, the Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill 2005 and the Equality of Opportunity for Women in Employment Bill 2005.

About the bill to repeal Hudood laws, Ms Rehman said she had actually resubmitted this bill as her earlier similar bill had so far not taken up by the standing committee without any reason. She said the government talked about enlightened moderation, but was not ready to repeal the controversial Hudood laws. She said Gen Musharraf had promulgated some 300 ordinances and if his slogan for “enlightened moderation” did not mean only for the west, then he should show courage and repeal the laws through an ordinance.

About the bill relating to domestic violence, the PPP MNA said according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s report for the year 2004, there had been an increase of 80 per cent in the cases of violence against women in the country as compared to last year. She said through her bill, she had suggested setting up of a “Protection Council”, consisting of a female union councillor, one female police officer and one male police officer, at the union council level. She said every person or victim could directly approach the protection council which was duty-bound to provide assistance to the victim on emergency basis.

Ms Rehman has also suggested formation of a “family conciliatory committee” in each union council under the Local Government Ordinance and the committee would consist of five members, at least three of whom would be women.

About her third bill regarding women employment, Ms Rehman said 50 per cent of the country’s population accounted for women yet their role in the economic sphere was marginal.