Women’s Protection Act 2006: Top Islamic body may examine the law

The move comes after Federal Shariat Court struck down some of its clauses.

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) may examine the Protection of Women Act 2006 after some of its clauses were struck down by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) last week, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The CII, the top constitutional advisory body, will study and decide whether or not the law is in conformity with the Holy Quran and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

The FSC had examined the constitutional aspect of the law and the CII will have to check it against Islamic principles, the source said.

“Deliberations on the act” will be one of the items on the CII’s agenda when it convenes some time in the next two months, a CII official told The Express Tribune, requesting anonymity.

However, the agenda is yet to be approved by CII Chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani. “He will decide whether or not the act should be discussed in the CII’s next meeting,” he said.

The CII is constitutionally-mandated to propose amendments to any law or its provisions, if found un-Islamic.

On Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari said that the government would challenge in the Supreme Court the December 23 judgment of the FSC against the Protection of Women Act.

After the FSC verdict, the ministry of law had also said that the government would move the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court against the judgment.

Maulana Sheerani, who belongs to the Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), had opposed the Protection of Women Act in the Senate in 2006.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a now defunct alliance of politico-religious parties of which the JUI-F was a component, had also opposed the proposed law in and outside parliament.

MMA lawmakers had threatened to resign from parliament en masse, if the law was enacted. According to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the MMA considered the law un-Islamic because parliament had struck down some provisions of the Hudood laws during the course of legislation.

The Hudood laws were drafted by the CII and promulgated through presidential ordinances by the then president General Ziaul Haq in 1979.

Human rights bodies and civil society organisations have demanded its repeal, arguing that they were discriminatory against women.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2010.