PESHAWAR, Dec 9: A meeting of the Aurat Foundation has demanded that the government should implement the recommendations of the National Commission on the Status of Women and repeal the Hudood Ordinance.
A special meeting on “Recommendations of the National Commission on the Status of Women” was arranged here on Tuesday by the legislative watch group of the Aurat Foundation.
Members of the various civil society organizations attended the meeting and observed that the Hudood Ordinance was introduced by a martial law government and implemented in the name of “Islamization” or divine laws and that they should be repealed.
They also observed that the Hudood Ordinance was usurping the rights of women, minorities and underprivileged sections of the society.
Bushra Gohar, a member of the special committee of the NCSW, said that the special committee reviewed the Hudood Ordinance and identified the key issues during it’s meetings.
She said that 12 out of 15 members of the special committee on “The review of the Enforcement of Hudood Ordinance, 1979” recommended to repeal Hudood Ordinance, whereas two scholars suggested amendments and one said that the recommendations of the special committee should be given affect to.
The NCSW special committee also recommended that legislation of the Hudood laws should be made anew after the repeal of the present Hudood Ordinance, but the draft bill should be first widely circulated and then placed before parliament for debate, Ms Gohar said.
She said the society should be educated about the injustice that was being done to the womenfolk in the name of the Islamic laws. “Being a Muslim, we are not against Islamic laws, but enforcement of these laws had brought about injustice whereas the main purpose of the Islamic laws is to provide justice,” the NCSW member said.
The members including lawyers, women’s rights and human rights activists, district councillors stressed that the Hudood laws were discriminatory and violative of the basic principles of justice, equality and human rights.
They were in violation of the Constitution, which categorically declares that “there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone”.
Rukhshanda Naz, resident director of the Aurat Foundation, said that mostly the rape victims were turned offender under Zina Ordinance, and the offenders were often acquitted.
During a recent survey in 18 prisons, majority of the women were in jail under the Hudood Ordinance and charged with Zina Ordinance irrespective of the possibility that they might not be guilty.
The meeting demanded of the government to take the recommendations of the NCSW into account and repeal the Hudood Ordinances and also criticized the parliamentarians specially the women MPs elected on the reserved seats for not supporting the repeal of the laws only due to political interests.