ISLAMABAD: A constitutional petition challenging the Criminal Procedure Code (2nd Amendment) Ordinance 2006, which gives under-trial women prisoners the right to get released on bail, was filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Shahid Orakzai, a freelance journalist who filed the petition, said that women released on bail were vulnerable to social exploitation because some of them had no family to go back to, while families of others did not accept them in several cases. The ordinance was promulgated on July 8, but lapsed after four months, and President Pervez Musharraf re-promulgated it on November 8.

The president had promulgated an amended ordinance that allowed women prisoners, including those facing Hudood cases, to get released on bail. As a direct outcome of this ordinance, about 1,300 women prisoners were supposed to be released from jails. Offences under the Hudood Ordinance were previously non-bailable, but the presidential ordinance amended Section 497 of the CPC to allow women facing adultery or other criminal charges, except for murder and terrorism, to get released on bail.
Source: Daily Times
Date:12/27/2006