Day: November 16, 2006

ISLAMABAD: Nov 15: The government rushed a signal women’s rights bill through the National Assembly on Wednesday amid a boycott by religious parties and some drama after the draft survived a prolonged controversy and an apparent last-minute intrigue.Slogan-chanting members of the Muttahida Majlis-Amal (MMA) walked out of the house in protest before the vote on the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Rights Bill, which they said was contrary to Islamic injunctions about punishments for zina (adultery and rape). But, they appeared wavering in carrying out an earlier threat to resign from parliament.

The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), the main opposition party, gave a rare support to the ruling coalition in passing the bill, which seeks to protect women from the widely complained misuse of the controversial Hudood ordinances about zina (adultery and rape) and qazf (false accusation of zina) enforced in 1979 by the then-military ruler General Mohammad Ziaul Haq.Members of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, a PPP ally in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, spoke with the MMA against the bill but abstained from the walkout as well as the voice vote, which had no shouts of `no’ after the MMA stormed out unconvinced by a low-key government-sponsored amendment to the draft that was approved by a special house select committee in September but put off by a controversy over whether it conformed to the Quran and Sunnah.

Government spokesmen had earlier said the bill, taken up on Wednesday about two months after it was put on ice because of the controversy, would be passed by Friday. But the ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), decided to finish the job in one day after President Pervez Musharraf apparently gave a pep talk to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other party leaders at a dinner meeting on Tuesday night. In what looked another attempt to ditch the bill, opposition leader and MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman called for postponing the vote after his denunciation of the bill as a `shameful’ attempt to alter the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah and to turn “Pakistan into a free sex zone” failed to cut any ice with the ruling coalition and met with strong rebuttals from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar and PPP’s Sherry Rahman.

The treasury benches ignored Maulana Fazl’s plea to wait for “direct contact” with the ulema outside the house for reaching a consensus, after which he led the walkout by MMA members who continued chanting “go Musharraf go”, “whoever is a friend of America is a traitor to the country” and “the bill opposed to Quran and Sunnah is unacceptable” for some time before actually going out of the house. “We will see if this house and our presence in this house is of any use,” he said in the last of three speeches he made on the bill, but gave little indication if the MMA would carry out its threat to resign from its 65 seats in the National Assembly and withdraw from the PML-led government in Balochistan if the bill were to be passed in the present shape.

The assembly session, which began on Nov 10, was originally expected to last 10 days, was prorogued immediately after Wednesday’s vote, at the completion of the fourth parliamentary year of the 342-seat house.The bill, which must also be passed by the Senate to become law, envisages a major relief by transferring the offence of zina-bil-jabr, or rape, from the 1979 Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) to spare a woman an automatic prosecution on the basis of assumed confession if she is unable to prove her charge of rape against a man by producing four witnesses of the crime.

Rape will be punishable with 10 to 25 years of imprisonment but with death or life imprisonment if committed by two or more persons together, while adultery under the Hudood ordinance is punishable with stoning to death.To check abuse of this ordinance and the Offence of Qazf (Enforcement of Hadd) Ordinance often aimed at settling vendettas and deny women basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, the new bill amends the Criminal Procedure Code to provide that only a sessions court may take cognizance of such a case after receiving a complaint.

The offence has been made bailable so the accused do not languish in jails during trial. Police will have no authority to arrest any one in such cases without a sessions court’s directive, which can be issued only to compel attendance in court or in the event of a conviction. The new amendment moved on Wednesday by the law and justice minister provided for an imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of Rs10,000 for the offence of fornication, or consensual sex of the unmarried.But in what an opposition source called a `firewall’ built around it, the amendment provides for a similar punishment for an accuser failing to prove the charge and bars converting zina and rape cases under other laws into fornication complaints at any stage.

The provision about fornication, which the amendment originally described as `lewdness’, was one of the three recommendations made for inclusion in the bill in an agreement that PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi reached with the committee of ulema in September. The two other recommendations of that agreement not incorporated in the bill had called for making an offence of rape liable to hadd if it met the required criterion of evidence and that the Quran and Sunnah “shall have effect notwithstanding anything contained in any other law ” in interpreting and applying the Zina Ordinance.

An MMA committee had at the time rejected these recommendations as insufficient, but Maulana Fazl said on Wednesday the bill would have been acceptable if it had contained the ulema committee’s proposals. “The draft presented today is neither one made by the select committee nor one proposed by the ulema committee,” he said referring to the amendment about fornication that had not yet been moved although the bill until then was the same as approved by the select committee that included the PPP but was boycotted by the MMA and PML-N. “Neither supporters (of the bill) know what they are supporting nor opponents know what they are opposing,” the MMA leader said when called for more consultations with the ulema to remove what he called a prevailing confusion. Sherry Rehman said PPP’s support for the bill was for removing some of the injustices suffered by women although the party wanted a total repeal of all four of Gen Zia’s Hudood decrees but could not do it during its two ruling stints because it lacked the required numbers in parliament. The other two decrees prescribed amputation of hands for theft and flogging for drinking.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/16/2006

KARACHI: A man was killed and a woman was shot and injured at Abdullah Goth within the precincts of Shah Lateef Town police station on Wednesday. Shakeel Khameeso allegedly shot 22-year-old Shabana Haneef and 27-yea-old Salman with a T.T pisstol, and fled.Salman died on the way to hospital. According to the police, Khameeso was Haneef’s brother-in-law,He suspected illicit relations between Shabana and Salman.He saw the two talking in the doorway of his house Wednesday afternoon,and fired at both of them.An FIR (No.317/2006) has been lodged by Salman’s brother Haji Muhammad,and police have started searching for Khameeso.
Source: Daily Times
Date:11/16/2006

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday termed the passage of the Women’s Protection Bill the first step in a long journey to protect women’s rights.“The government will also bring more legislation for protecting the rights of women to remove all those injustices prevailing in the society,” he said in his brief address to the National Assembly on Wednesday after the passage of the bill. He assured the House that there would be no legislation contrary to the Holy Qur’aan and Sunnah. “We would never adopt any bill violative of the Qur’aan and Sunnah,” he said, adding that the Constitution also guarantees this. “It is our collective responsibility that no law is promulgated in the country in violation of the Qur’aan and Sunnah.”

The prime minister reiterated PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s commitment that they would bring about amendments if anything contrary to the Qur’aan and Sunnah was found in the bill.“The government, in consultation with other parties and the Ulema, will introduce some other bills as well to empower women and safeguard their rights,” he added. The prime minister thanked members of the House belonging to the PML, the PPP and the PPPP, the PML-F and the PML-N for their attitude during the passage of the bill. “We should demonstrate the same spirit in other matters.”Muhammad Saleh Zaafir adds: Addressing a news conference in his Parliament House Chamber immediately after the passage of the bill on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said since the bill was finalised after consultations with different segments of the society and the recommendations of the Ulema, therefore, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had no justification for boycotting the passage.

Shaukat Aziz said he talked to the president after the passage of the bill, and General Pervez Musharraf congratulated him and the whole nation on its adoption. The prime minister expressed satisfaction that no party opposed the bill. The PML, its allied parties, and the PPPP supported the bill while the PML-N abstained from the voting. This, he said, shows that democracy is functioning well in the country. He said 157 members of the PML and allies –31 of the PPPP and three of the PML-N were present in the House during the voting. The bill has been passed with a record number of votes of members of the National Assembly.Replying to questions, the prime minister said the bill passed on Wednesday is not exactly the same as recommended by the Select Committee as several amendments have been incorporated after the consultative process. Earlier, talking to a delegation of members of the National Assembly under PML-Q President Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain in his chamber, the prime minister said that the amendment to the Women’s Protection Bill was reflective of the views of the PML and its allied parties and is in complete conformity with the injunctions of Islam.
Source: The News
Date:11/16/2006

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Women Development and Youth Affairs Sumaira Malik has termed passage of the Women Protection Bill victory for women.Talking to media in the Parliament House here on Wednesday, she said the government had fulfilled its promise to ensure protection and honour for women.The minister said that another commitment of President Gen Pervez Musharraf had been realised. “The laws which were used against women in the name of Islam have now been repealed,” she added.Sumaira said that more amendments would soon be introduced in parliament in a bid to repeal the the laws discriminatory to women. Meanwhile, Chairperson, Senate Standing Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Razina Alam Khan said the passage of the Women Protection Bill reflected commitment of the government to protect rights of women segment of the society. Commenting on the passage of the bill, she said it would provide speedy justice and safety to women and ensure they got their due rights.

In a statement issued here, she fully supported the statement of Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in which he said he would resign as member national assembly if any clause in the Women Protection Bill was found against the teachings of the Qur’aan and the Sunnah. The senator said the bill was in complete conformity with the injunctions of Qur’aan and Sunnah. The passage of the bill was the first step towards the protection of women rights, she added. However, she called for need of creating awareness among women about their rights.Senator Nisar A Memon, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Defence also described the passage of Women Protection Bill as “the day of victory for the rights of women in Pakistan”. Talking to APP by telephone he said that all the progressive forces had joined hands to reject the suppressive laws made in the name of Islam. “We are delighted that under the leadership of President General Pervez Musharraf wrongs of the past have been corrected,” he remarked. Senator Memon said that this was only heralding the beginning of the social justice and citizen of Pakistan whether they were men or women, rural or urban, Muslims or Non-Muslims, educated or uneducated, this struggle for social justice must go on.
Source: The News
Date:11/16/2006

ISLAMABAD:Nov 16:The new and amended version of the Women’s Protection Bill passed on Wednesday may not be a major landmark in the campaign against the country’s anti-women laws, particularly some of the controversial Hudood ordinances. The form in which the bill has been passed by the National Assembly is certainly not what women’s rights groups were campaigning for, or what opposition MNAs like Sherry Rehman or even some of government backbenchers like M.P. Bhandara and Kashmala Tariq were aiming for. Many of them had clearly called for the complete abolition of the discriminatory ordinances enforced by the late military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq to push the country towards a theocratic state. Even then it is the first piece of legislation that is likely to give a new and more interesting direction to national politics.

In fact, the passage of the women’s rights bill has opened up new avenues for possible readjustments amongst the political groupings, and may pave the way for redrawing of the political battle-lines in the run up to the 2007 general elections. So, if efforts were already being made for some kind of realignment on the basis of political beliefs, if not ideology, the bill may provide the right excuse to give them a decisive push. In some ways, the passage of this bill could be a watershed in the country’s political history, and most parties in parliament seem to be well aware of it. So, it’s small wonder that the bill was passed without the kind of rowdy scenes and disruptions that were witnessed at the time when it was originally tabled. With stakes in the game already quite high, voting time was quite crucial. And the pattern indicates that despite their strong views on the matter, the major players have decided to keep their options open to allow further bargaining before the next elections are called.

Since President Pervez Musharraf wanted the bill to be passed without further amendments, the PML and its allies didn’t have much of a choice but to support the move. Still the Muslim League president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, indirectly expressed his displeasure by offering to resign if, in his words, anything in the bill was found to be against the teachings of Islam. The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had earlier threatened to go for extreme action, indicating that its members might resign from parliament if, in the words of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, “such an un-Islamic piece of legislation is passed”. But his speech that marked the opening of the debate, though full of rhetoric about the bill being an attempt to create a free-sex society, was far from threatening. Qazi Hussain, who is believed to be a more radical hardliner among the Islamic alliance leaders, was conspicuous by his absence. And instead of resigning from the assembly, the MMA confined its protest to a token boycott.

The PML (N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was faced with a tough choice. When the bill was originally tabled some time back, one of the party leaders, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, had hinted that their party might side with the MMA. However, at the time of voting, the PML-N decided to abstain. It was a clear move to express its annoyance over the PPP’s decision to support a government-sponsored bill but without threatening the break-up of the main opposition alliance, ARD. Perhaps the boldest, and in some ways also the most controversial, move was that of Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. It was not an easy decision for the party, which for the last many years had been campaigning for Gen Musharraf to step down. For some of the party hardliners even the thought of supporting a military-led regime on any issue was blasphemous. But those close to Benazir Bhutto say that for a pragmatic person like her, politics has never been a zero-sum game.

The position her party took was that each ARD component has the right to take an independent position on issues, like the support for such a crucial piece of legislation. But many analysts say by taking such a crucial step Ms Bhutto has also sent an indirect message to Gen Musharraf and his backers about her renewed willingness to explore the possibility of a realignment on the basis of liberals and moderates taking on the Islamists in the next elections. But is such a re-alignment possible? It’s no secret that indirect channels of communication have remained open between Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto. In recent months both have avoided harsh criticism or a direct attack on each other, with speculations being rife that all but a few issues stand in the way of a pre-election agreement. Analysts say the biggest motivating factor has been the desire of regime’s backers to work towards the creation of a grouping to take on the Islamists in the next elections. Those close to Ms Bhutto say she too has been informed about such a desire, perhaps with a caveat that such a grouping will have to work under Gen Musharraf.

Even though the back-channel negotiations between the two sides have largely been on this basis, those claiming to be aware of such moves say a deal was still a distant dream.
And it’s mainly due to mistrust in the two camps about each other’s intentions in the post-election scenario. More recently there were talks of a deadlock on issues ranging from Musharraf’s uniform to the fate of corruption cases against Ms Bhutto. So, even when the PPP-P has supported the bill to make its priority on the future politics of country clear, it has not closed down its option of returning to the rest of the opposition for a more formidable anti-Musharraf alliance, if the situation so demands.

Same has been the approach of the PML-N, which is neither willing to give up on the PPP-P nor willing to annoy the MMA. The MMA too doesn’t look like a unified force. The process of the bill has exposed quite a few differences that have continued to create problems within the six-party Islamic alliance. The Jamaat-i-Islami has been pressing for a more hard-line position, even insisting on resigning from the assemblies, but Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s JUI has its eyes on the next elections. The passage of the Hasba Bill in the North-West Frontier Province has given it a new slogan to go back to the electorate in the name of religion. Some even say that its soft peddling on the women rights bill could be to avoid the repetition of the earlier move by the federal government to block the Hasba bill from becoming a law. In other words, the passage of the women’s rights bill by the National Assembly may have unfolded a new and perhaps a more treacherous round of politics in the coming weeks and months. How politics in the run up to the election shapes up could be anybody’s guess, but as things stand today, General Musharraf doesn’t look like a loser.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/16/2006