ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The National Assembly plunged into a prolonged chaos on Wednesday as the ruling coalition and opponents of a government bill on women’s rights accused each other of un-Islamic conduct and breaching the privileges of the lower house.
The proceedings often turned into shouting contests between the two sides, forcing Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to promise to expunge mostly unspecified objectionable remarks made by rival members during some of the highly provocative speeches.
It was only towards the fag end of the evening sitting that some sanity returned to the house with the start of a debate on a government bill, designed to reduce the tenure of members of the Federal Public Service Commission to three years from five.
The disorder arose from rival privilege motions filed by members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) about Monday’s proceedings in the house when the government tabled the bill seeking to protect women from ‘misuse’ of two Islamic Hudood ordinances enforced in 1979 by then military ruler General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq concerning Zina (rape and adultery) and Qazf (false allegation of Zina).
The MQM accused MMA members of desecrating the Holy Quran and Sunnah by tearing up the copies of the Criminal Law (Amendment) (Protection of Women) Bill that contained such names in its text.
MMA members said it was the government that did so because they thought the bill, which would be considered by a special select committee representing all parliamentary groups from Friday, was contrary to Islamic injunctions as it interfered with the Hudood, or limits set by the Holy Quran, for punishment of the related offences.
“The government is insulting the Quran and Sunnah in the name of women’s rights,” MMA member Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said, while another MMA member, Ms Samia Raheel Qazi, said every page of the bill ‘insulted’ the Quran and the Holy Prophet (PBUH) by its interpretations of the injunctions of the Holy Quran.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi denied the charges, saying the bill was in accordance with the Islamic injunctions while Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar provoked loud protests from MMA members when he accused them of misleading the people on the issue.