Proposed repeal of faith-based laws hangs in the balance

A recent accord between the ruling coalition and a right-wing alliance of six religious parties, known as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) that enabled constitutional amendments proposed by President Pervez Musharraf – who, himself, was able to win a controversial vote-of-confidence as a result – to be pushed through parliament and become a part of Pakistan’s 1973 constitution has raised apprehensions amongst rights groups battling to get the contentious Hudood Ordinances repealed. Promulgated in 1979 by then military dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq as part of an “Islamisation programme,” the Hudood Ordinances relate primarily to adultery and fornication (Zina) offences, but also deal with theft, alcohol and drug consumption and false accusations in court (Qazf). A fifth component, the Whipping Ordinance prescribes punishments such as stoning to death or up to 100 lashes. “Rights organisations working for the repeal of discriminatory laws in the country fear that as a result of the deal struck by the government and the MMA on the LFO, there may be an increase in the reluctance to do away with so-called Islamic laws in the country because of pressure by the MMA,” Kamila Hyat, the Joint-Director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told IRIN from the eastern city of Lahore. The chairwoman of a government-formed National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), which has recommended that the laws – under which rape cases are registered and under which a rape victim unable to prove her case can be accused of adultery – be repealed, voiced her disquiet also. “I do have apprehensions,” Justice (retd) Majida Rizvi, the NCSW chairperson, told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi as she prepared to board a flight to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. “But it’s difficult to say at this point in time what will happen. The MMA have spoken to me and consented to amendments being made in the existing law,” she explained. Rizvi said she was still not sure if the proposed repeal of the ordinance would ever come up in parliament. “But whatever happens, we will not settle for a repeal in part. We want a full-fledged repeal of the ordinance,” she stressed. The HRCP’s Hyat said, however, that she thought the move could face some snags. “Because of the deal, the HRCP fears that the MMA may be able to pressurise the government to keep all so-called Islamic legislation in place,” she maintained. Following the NCSW’s recommendation last year that the Hudood Ordinance be repealed, religious parties launched a vigorous campaign opposing any such decision. After rare but well-attended demonstrations by veiled women, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Assembly, dominated by religious groups that swept into power in the 2002 general elections primarily because of widespread anti-US sentiment after the campaign to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan the previous year, passed a unanimous resolution condemning the recommendation as part of a conspiracy against Islam. But there was also widespread support for the movement to have the Hudood Ordinance – according to which consensual sex outside marriage is a cognisable offence but marital rape and raping a child-bride are no longer offences – repealed. Women’s groups in Karachi and Islamabad staged vociferous counter-protests as they defended the recommendation. “Irrespective of the impediments that emerge, we feel, especially after the recommendations of the NCSW, that never in the history of Pakistan has general public opinion, as well as the opinion from a very large number of legislators, number of political parties, in support for the repeal of the Hudood Ordinance been as strong as it has been in recent months,” Naeem Mirza, the director of the Legislative Watch Program at the Aurat Foundation, a women’s advocacy and welfare organisation, told IRIN in Islamabad. “We stand for a total repeal of the Hudood Ordinances. We have been striving for a total repeal of the ordinance for the past two decades and have engaged in a number of activities towards that end, because we feel it is highly discriminatory towards women,” he stressed.