PESHAWAR, Jan 10: A Shariat petition challenging the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance has been pending before the Federal Shariat Court for the last five years without any noteworthy progress.
The petition was filed by a Peshawar-based lawyer, Abdullah Sani, stating that Qatl-i-Amd (intentional murder) could not be compounded and the provisions dealing with compromising and compounding intentional murder were un-Islamic.
The petition was taken up for preliminary hearing in 1997. A full bench hearing the said petition had adjourned the proceedings, observing that as the case was of important nature, the court would fix it after preparation by the state and the petitioner.
The petition was fixed for hearing on Jan 6 at Peshawar but it could not be taken up for hearing as the full bench of the court was not available on that date.
The Qisas and Diyat Ordinance was introduced in 1990 and through it about 40 provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code dealing with murder and body injuries, Sections 299 to 388, were amended.
The said ordinance was re-promulgated by successive governments many times as the constitutional life of an ordinance is four months. Finally, the Nawaz Sharif government gave permanent status to the law when the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 (Act No3 of 1997) was passed by parliament on April 10, 1997.
The petitioner has stated that the said Act was un-Islamic and should be declared in contravention of the Islamic injunctions. He stated that nowhere in the Holy Quran it had been mentioned that intentional murder could be compounded or compromise could be made in it. He stated that only Qatl-i-Khata (unintentional murder) could be compounded.
The petitioner also challenged the fixation of Diyat (the compensation payable to the heirs of a victim) by the government, stating that it was against the injunctions of the holy book. He claimed that in the holy Quran nowhere the worth of a human life is given.
He stated that when the holy Quran had not ordained anything about the Diyat amount the government had no authority to specify it.