Amendment bill: Opposition lawmaker suggests renaming pro-women law

MPA says word ‘women’ shall be substituted with ‘gender’ to include transgender persons.

LAHORE: An opposition lawmaker has suggested renaming ‘The Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act, 2016’ by replacing the word ‘women’ with ‘gender’ to weed out discriminatory attitude towards the transgender community.

Independent MPA Ehsan Riaz Fatyana submitted ‘The Punjab Protection of Gender against Violence (Amendment) Bill 2017” in the Punjab Assembly secretariat on Monday.

“In Punjab, discriminatory attitude towards men, women and the third gender has existed for generations and affects the lives of all genders,” the objectives of the bill read.

Although the constitution grants equal rights to all citizens, gender disparity is still prevalent. Gender discrimination violates not only human rights but also fundamental rights as rights are for all human beings, including the transgender persons.

The law specifically talks about violence against women alone in violation of Article 25, which states all citizens are equal before law and are entitled of equal protection, the amendment bill says.

MPA Ehsan suggested amendments in Sections 1 to 30 of ‘The Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016’ to substitute the word ‘women’ with ‘gender’.

He also suggested amending Clause (a) of Sub-section (1) of Section 2 where ‘female’ shall be substituted with ‘gender’. This clause states the aggrieved persons mean a female who has been subjected to violence by a defendant.

The landmark law aims at protecting women against domestic violence, to establish a protection system for victims and to create an enabling environment to encourage and facilitate women to work freely and to provide for ancillary matters.

Immoral advertisements

Meanwhile, PML-N lawmaker Shehzad Munshi also submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly secretariat demanding the removal of ‘immoral’ advertisements on public transport, especially auto rickshaws.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2017.