ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: Chairperson National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Women Development Mehnaz Rafi on Sunday said she would shortly table in the house a bill on prevention of domestic violence and workplace harassment against women.

She was speaking at a seminar on “discriminatory laws against women in Pakistan - the way forward” arranged by the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) to commemorate the National Women’s Day.

The day was observed to mark the 23rd anniversary of police “brutality” against women during a protest rally against the draft Qanoon-i-Shahadat (law of evidence).

Ms Rafi said she would also introduce bills against Wani and Swara customs, illegal Jirga and Panchayat system in the country.

About the inequality of women, she said it was not a matter of political affiliations but a problem stemming out of behaviours. She called for building pressure for a behavioural change in the male-dominated society.

She agreed that there was a need to amend the honour killing bill. She said she had always supported the views of the opposition members on the rights of women.

PPP MNA Fauzia Wahab said women bore the brunt of the discriminatory laws and social customs. She said women were affected the most when undemocratic forces came to power.

She said it was a matter of delight that a bill to amend the Hudood ordinances was tabled in the house. She said it was now the responsibility of the government to bring forth a meaningful legislation. “As it is, the approval of the bill would be the biggest victory of the century,” she remarked.

She said the bill on honour killing was still incomplete in terms of protection of the rights of the people. She said her party had reservations on it and urged civil society and the media to mount pressure on the government to modify the bill.

She said the country had witnessed escalation in violence against women during the last two years. She stressed that all women should raise their voice against it irrespective of their political affiliations.

Prominent human rights activist Hina Jilani Advocate said despite all odds a cohesive human rights movement was going on in the country, which itself was a victory.

She said the Hudood ordinances should be repealed. She pointed out that all the commissions on the status of women in their reports had recommended that the ordinances should be abrogated.

“It is better to annul the law instead of amending 18 out of the 22 clauses,” she opined.

She termed the bill on honour killing insignificant and said honour killing was also a murder under the previous law. She demanded that Qisas and Diyat law be repealed. “You have privatized honour killing by Qisas and Diyat,” she said, adding that there was room for compromise at any stage under the Qisas and Diyat law. She said the compromises were normally accepted by the courts which were under pressure owing to heavy workload. She said this meant immunity to the culprits with no social stigma.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairman I. A. Rahman also underlined the need to repeal the Qisas and Diyat law and said in the presence of the law murder was not a crime.

He urged women to wage a struggle to achieve their rights. He said WAF had to play the role of an umbrella organization.

Begum Zari Sarfraz was the sole speaker on the occasion to defend President General Pervez Musharraf in connection with the rights of women. She said Gen Musharraf was ready to give the rights to women what political governments had denied to them.