LAHORE: The West Punjab Assembly today [Jan 29] passed the West Punjab Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Bill which gives Muslim women their long-de­nied right of succession to agricultural land. Over­whe­l­­ming number of women, most of them without burqa, were present in the visitors gallery.

… Khan Iftikhar Hussain Khan, Premier of the West Punjab, assured the House while replying to the debate, that the Bill was only the first step towards the enforcement of Isla­mic laws in the West Punjab and his Mi­­nistry would gradually present to the House other Bills based on Muslim personal law (Shariat). During the consideration of the Bill, Khan Abdul Sattar Khan Niazi suggested that the preamble of the Bills should have embodied a definite assurance that Islamic laws civil as well as penal would gradually be enforced and provisions should also have been made to counter the tendency towards dissipation among women who inh­erit land. He also called for prohibition banning immoral practices in accordance with the injunctions of the Shariat. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2023