Violence against women: Prospects brighten for pro-women bills

Government likely to pass anti-honour killing, anti-rape laws

ISLAMABAD: In an apparent bid to curb the rising tide of crimes against women, the government is all set to pass in the coming weeks an anti-honour killing bill and an ant-rape bill during the joint sitting of parliament.

The prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, on Wednesday told Reuters that the two pro-women bills will be discussed in a special parliamentary committee meeting, whose first meeting is going to be held today (Thursday).

Earlier, the proposed laws – Criminal Laws Amendment Bill, 2015, and the Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2015 – had lapsed as they could not be passed by the National Assembly within the stipulated timeframe of 90 days.

The bills were originally laid in the Senate in January 2014 by a former senator Sughra Imam as a private members bill. However, they could not make their way in the joint sitting of Parliament in April this year, mainly due to opposition from the Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F).

However, the government last week constituted a special body –Committee of Joint Sittings Bills – to expedite legislation on the long-delayed process.



Now a 10-member committee, headed by Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid, will discuss the bills in presence of the JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also member of the body.. Senator Farhatullah Babar will also be attending the meeting as mover of the bill.

After the joint session, Cabinet Committee on Law Reforms discussed the bills with lawmakers of JUI-F and also invited Imam for her comments as well.

A consensus has already developed between the government and the opposition over the anti-rape bill while the agreement on the anti-honour killing bill is likely to be reached in a few weeks.

Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Law and Justice Zafarullah Khan told The Express Tribune that the final draft would be presented before the committee on Thursday for final approval.

“Hopefully the process will be completed very soon,” he said; however, he avoided giving any definitive date for the passage of bills from parliament.

In the Criminal Laws Amendment Bill, amendments have been proposed in sections 302, 309, 310, 338-E of PPC and Section 345 CrPC to do away with the waiver of Qisas by a wali (guardian) and include the offence committed in the name or on the pretext of honour.

Similarly, existing provisions of sections 336-A and 336-B of PPC have also been proposed by the Cabinet Committee on Law Reforms for amendments.

About the delay Senator Babar observed that “after Panama leaks the government has become vulnerable and it is pandering to the demands of religious parties which is the prime reason for delay.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2016.