ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: The federal government is set to decide whether to repeal or amend the Hudood Ordinance within next one month, Nilofer Bakhtiar, advisor to the prime minister on women development, social welfare and special education, told Dawn on Monday.

She said she had been taking personal interest in the issue and had advised the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) to speed up its workings in this regard.

The commission, which has already started a consultation process with stakeholders, has been asked to finalize the findings it had made during its four meetings held at provincial headquarters over the last one year, Ms Bakhtiar said.

She said: “I know the issue has been delayed for quite some time due to vested interests of few quarters. It should have been sorted out much earlier.”

The advisor accepted that owing to some controversial clauses of the law, which were biased in the favour of men, the women had suffered a lot. However, she said the government would make sure that the issue was settled once and for all.

When asked whether the government would repeal or amend the law, she said: “Since, the present government is a political one, hence, it will go for a moderate solution wherein apprehensions of all quarters concerned are addressed.”

It may be recalled here that the National Commission on Status of Women, a statuary body, was constituted on July 17, 2000, through an ordinance promulgated by the president of Pakistan.

The objectives of the NCSW, as stated in the ordinance, were emancipation of the women; equalisation of the opportunities and socio-economic conditions among women; and elimination of all forms of discrimination against them.

After the commission was set up, a 13-member committee, comprising distinguished jurists, religious scholars, eminent representatives of the civil society organizations and human rights activists, and were given a six-week time to come up with final recommendation whether to repeal or amend the Hudood Ordinance.

However, even after the passage of dead-line on June 15, 2002, the committee failed make any recommendations due to serious difference of opinion among its members.