Rights activists want PPP govt to pass domestic violence bill before elections

The bill was passed by the National Assembly, but lapsed after Senate failed to do so.

KARACHI: Hoping to make the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government pass the domestic violence bill before its tenure runs out in the next few months, women’s rights activists have decided to turn up the heat on the issue.

During a dialogue on “Legislation on Domestic Violence Bill,” organised by the Aurat Foundation on Friday, speakers criticised the provincial government for delaying further legislation on a bill that was introduced in the assembly for the first time in 2008. At an roundtable discussion this September, the organisation had claimed that around 610 women had become victims of domestic violence in 2011.

Members of civil society as well as lawmakers from the government and opposition were in attendance at Friday’s event.

“A major hurdle [to the bill] is the mindset of male lawmakers, who do not consider pro-women legislation worth listening to,” shared Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA Marvi Rashidi.

She added that if the men are asked to pay attention to the discussion, they remark that the “Speaker Sahab” is listening to you.

The PML-F MPA couldn’t refrain from taking a shot at the PPP-led government during the seminar, as she criticised the Sindh Assembly for passing “black laws” like the the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance, but not laws that will provide legal recourse to women who become victims of domestic violence. “If the chief minister approved pro-women bills in the same manner, then we would be the first people to appreciate him,” said Rashidi.



While recalling the hurdles faced by the domestic violence bill in the country, Anis Haroon, chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women, said that the bill was passed by the National Assembly in 2009, but came to naught when the Senate failed to pass it within the requisite time period. After the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, only provincial assemblies can deal with the issue. Haroon then called upon all provincial assemblies to pass a resolution that would give the National Assembly the authority to take up the domestic violence bill.

PML-F’s Nusrat Sahar Abbasi then urged women lawmakers to go beyond party lines on the matter so that the bill is tabled and then passed by the legislature.

PPP legislator Anwar Khar Mehar acknowledged that if the relevant standing committees had been proactive, the bill would not have stalled in the National Assembly.

By providing a rare view into the life of a bill proposed by private member, Mehar said that they arrive in the assembly without being vetted by the law department and the relevant ministries.

“They are therefore transferred to the provincial assembly’s standing committee [that deals with the issue]. These committees rarely organise any meetings,” said Mehar.

Aurat Foundation’s resident director Mehnaz Rehman hoped that all the efforts for the domestic violence bill would not go down the drain.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2012.