However, all the four panelists agreed that the law had a number of lacunas and defects which should be removed either through repealing or amendments.
Similarly, they also shared the viewpoint that womenfolk had been at the receiving end, and to this date, thousands were languishing in jails all over the country.
The seminar, organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), was presided over by Pakistan Law Commission secretary Dr Faqir Hussain.
The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) chairperson Justice Majida Rizvi (retired) led those speaking in favour of repealing the ordinance.
“Hudood Ordinance had make the mockery of Islam and it has nothing to do with the Islamic injunctions, hence it should be totally repealed as recently recommended by the commission with the overwhelming majority of its members,” she said.
She also referred to Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid’s 1997 report that stated that Hudood laws should be repealed with the immediate affect, as these had been promulgated with malafide intention.
The NCSW chairperson further maintained that the famous Huzoor Bux case (1983), in which two different benches passed totally opposite judgments on the issue of Rajam, made it clear that laws were controversial.
She also argued that Rajam (stoning to death) had not been given in Quran and “we don’t even have enough evidences whether it was commonly practised during the time of Hazrat Mohammad (Peace be upon him)”.
Challenging the provision of women witness in the law whereby four women are required to testify, she said when Hazrat Usman Ghani (RA) was murdered, witness of a women was accepted and murderer was given the punishment.
“It is ridiculous that a women victim who is raped should produce four witnesses to prove that,” she said.
Fouzia Wahab, MNA of PPP, supporting the arguments given by the NCSW chairperson, said Hudood laws were the brainchild of Gen Zia who, she claimed, wanted to appease certain extremist elements of that time.
She was of the opinion that 70 per cent of the women victims of Hudood laws were from the rural areas, hence could not be part of an egalitarian society.
The other camp, which was of the view that Hudood Ordinance should be amended, was lead by MNA Dr Attaur Rehman.
Dr Rehman, who has studied from Islamic University of Malaysia, agreed that womenfolk of the county were suffering and had never been given due respect.