International Women’s Day: No end in sight

There are many bills that have been tabled in NA, provincial assemblies and Senate, but they have not been passed.

LAHORE:

The legislative history on women’s rights issues has seen good and bad days. While the struggle for women-friendly legislations has seen some successes, there are many bills that have been tabled in the National Assembly, provincial assemblies and the Senate, but have not been passed.

One pertinent example would be the amendment in the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929, requiring that the minimum age of marriage be moved up from 16 years to 18 years. Different bills to amend it were tabled in the National Assembly by PML-Q’s parliamentarian Begum Atiya Anayatullah and PPP’s Yasmin Rehman from 2006 to 2008, but nothing concrete was done in this regard. While there is some headway in this connection in the Sindh Assembly, a previous Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly rejected a similar measure and the federal government is also still sticking to 16 years.

Another case in point: According to Section 10 Citizenship Act 1951, a Pakistani man can sponsor citizenship for his wife of non-Pakistani origin. However, a Pakistani woman cannot do the same for her husband of non Pakistani origin. The Federal Shariat court declared it discriminatory in 2007 against which an appeal is pending in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Bushra Gohar of ANP moved a bill on this in the National Assembly in 2008, but nothing could be done in regard to addressing this discriminatory law.

Domestic violence is an issue which women’s rights organisation have been working for since the late 1980s. In 1996 they gave samples to the parliamentarians of different Islamic countries who had legislations on this, such as Malaysia.

As a result of sustained efforts of activists and parliamentarians, a bill on domestic violence was passed by the National Assembly on August 4, 2009. Sadly, the bill met resistance in the Senate and lapsed after three months. If the bill had been passed by the upper house within 90 days, it would have become a law at the national level.

Another potentially useful bill that is yet to see the light of the day is the Punjab Family Member Protection from Violence Bill 2013 that was proposed by the Punjab Government but was rejected by civil society organisations (CSOs). The CSOs were of the view that such an act should be regarded a criminal offence, and submitted a complete bill to the Social Welfare department. However, opposition from within the government to accept this suggestion is holding back the bill.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Mumtaz Mughal, Provincial Manager, Aurat Foundation, said, “Family Laws should be immediately amended and improved, particularly with regard to child marriages, polygamy and right to divorce for women in the Nikahnama. Laws pertaining to minorities can be improved in consultation with representatives of the communities and legal experts.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2014.