PESHAWAR: The civil society has asked the participants of the ongoing inter-ministerial conference in Peshawar to discuss the domestic violence bill of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and do away with Article 22, which may allow family members to continue with domestic violence in the name of ‘corrective measures’ .

A press release, issued by Aurat Foundation in consultation with Khwendo Kor, Takrha Qabaili Khwenday and South Asia Partnership Organisation, urged the inter-ministerial conference to discuss the bill that provincial government drafted in the light of directives of the Council of Islamic Ideology instead of the demands of the organisations working for women rights.

The civil society earlier expressed its concerns when provincial government came up with a proposed draft of domestic violence bill that added to it Article 22. The Article allows parents and spouses to use ‘corrective measures within the constraints of the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah’ thus exempting them from any punishment by the law.

Civil society calls for effective law to curb violence against women

The proposed bill was prepared by two members of the Women Parliamentary Caucus of the provincial assembly including an MPA of Jamaat-i-Islami. An earlier draft prepared by the Provincial Commission on the Status of Women was sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology, which raised many objections to it.

The release said that inter-ministerial conference should discuss the Articles that made the domestic violence bill ineffective. They should remove the lacunas and propose a bill that would actually be effective, it said.

The release said that ministers should also review the age of the child given in the proposed law as it was reduced from 18 years to 15 years in the proposed bill. The proposed bill defines domestic violence as ‘physical violence’ but it does not take into account the psychological torture, which is a serious form of violence especially at domestic level.

Shabina Ayaz, head of Aurat Foundation in Peshawar, said that inter-ministerial conference should review the bill and use its influence to lobby for a law, which would actually be effective in eliminating and reducing domestic violence.

Many rights activists working for the last so many years for a law that would reduce domestic violence said that the proposed bill that exempted parents and spouse from any penalty was more dangerous and it was better not to have it.

Ms Ayaz said that the proposed law had unclear definitions, neglecting vulnerable groups like women, children and transgender persons. The Article 14 of the proposed law says: “The court, at any stage of the proceeding under the Act, may, direct the accused or aggrieved person or both to undergo mandatory counselling with an appropriate service provider.” It means way is open for conflict resolution through jirga like bodies.

The release said that cases of violence were rising every year. According to police data, 1,081 cases of violence against women were reported in the current year. The data shows that 139 women were murdered, 39 were killed in the name of honour, 51 faced domestic violence and 658 were kidnapped.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2017