KARACHI, Dec 4: Though the law recognises women's issues on paper, there is a need to enforce laws designed to protect women and to reinterpret these in a progressive manner.

Advocate Maliha Zia Lari, speaking on enforcing affirmative legislation, said that despite the fact that laws existed on paper, the next step that needed to be taken was the reinterpretation of the law and the need for lawyers to start pleading their cases in a different way.

She said that though there were a lot of setbacks for the women's movement in Pakistan, there had also been positive changes. Giving an example, she said that when the Samia Imran honour killing case emerged in the early nineties, a resolution condemning it was thrown out of the Senate.

However when several women were reportedly buried alive in Balochistan a few years ago, there was almost universal condemnation of the act in the upper house.

Ms Lari said the country's laws were quite “positive” while the constitution was “forward-looking”. The problem lay in the implementation of the law. She said the courts are “infamously unwilling to provide protection to women. In Pakistan the personal bias of judges plays a part in judgements”, adding that there is no transparency in judicial matters.

“Women are not willing to go to court because they will not get justice. The process is time-consuming and women also face harassment in court”.

She said punishments are handed down for honour killing, but they are mitigated. She called for the implementation of the law and for handing down of sentences so that this could serve as a deterrent to those who perpetrated violence against women.

Shagufta Alizai of the Women's Action Forum spoke of the milestones in the women's movement in Pakistan. She said both individuals and organisations had contributed to the movement, while adding that when activists organised themselves during the Zia regime they received threats to themselves and their families. She mentioned Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan, Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto and Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan as trailblazers for women's rights in the country.

She said that though the charter for women's rights failed to be incorporated in the 1956 constitution, that constitution did recognise women's right to representation. She said Ms Jinnah's campaign for the presidency in 1965 paved the way for Benazir Bhutto to become prime minister twice. However, Ms Alizai said from 1979 till about 1989 “women lost the spaces they had gained. It was a backwards slide”. Coming to the current era she said that “things you never spoke of or heard about” such as domestic violence, rape and honour killings were now being addressed. “The women's rights movement has been a long, painful journey. But the seed has been sown and others can now benefit from the shade of the tree”.

Development specialist Arif Hasan spoke on changing gender and family structures.