ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Parliamentarians representing various political parties except for MMA unanimously agreed on Tuesday with the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) that the Hudood Ordinances must be repealed.
In this regard a discussion with the parliamentarians on “Discriminatory Laws Against Women” was organised by the Aurat Foundation, an NGO, here.
The participants of the discussion unanimously agreed that Hudood Ordinances were the brain-child of former military dictator Ziaul Haq, which he had promulgated to please a certain constituency.
They also acknowledged that successive democratic governments had also failed to reach some consensus to get rid of the most controversial set of laws that had virtually put women at the receiving end for the last over two decades.
In the two-hour lively discussion they reiterated their commitment to playing their due role within parliament for the repeal of the Hudood laws. They also shared the view point that if there was need for such legislation, it should be moved through parliament.
The NCSW chairperson, Justice Majida Rizvi (retired), also made a presentation at the start of the discussion apprising the participants about the Commission’s recommendations on the laws.
“Hudood ordinances have nothing to do with the Islamic injunctions, hence these be totally repealed as has been recommended by the Commission recently by an overwhelming majority of its members,” she said.
It is worth-mentioning here that a 17-member special committee constituted by the NCSW after six extensive meetings had recommended the repeal of the Hudood laws by 15 to two.
During the presentation, she referred to Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid’s report back in 1997 that Hudood laws should be repealed with immediate affect, as these had been promulgated with malafide intention.
She also said that pronouncement of two opposite judgments in the famous Huzoor Bux case (1983) on the issue of Rajam had made it immensely clear that these laws were controversial.
Challenging the provision of women witness in the law whereby four women were required to testify in some case, she said, when Hazrat Usman Ghani (RA) was murdered, the witness of a women was accepted as legal and the murderer was given the punishment.
“It is ridiculous that a women victim who is raped should produce four male witnesses to testify that she has been raped,” she criticised while referring to the Zina Ordinance. She also told the participants that women witness had been excluded from all the four ordinances, therefore, there was no justification for accepting the Hudood Ordinances as rational laws.
The PPP MNA, Ms Sherry Rehman, who has recently moved a bill in the National Assembly for repeal of the Hudood laws, supported the arguments given by the NCSW chairperson.