Violence against women: ‘Some lawmakers apprehensive of bill’

Raheela Khadim confident of bill being passed in next session

LAHORE: While the Protection of Women Against Violence Bill remains pending at the Provincial Assembly, work on another delayed project, The Violence Against Women Centre in Multan, is set to commence next week, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the centre will be held next week. The centre, which was slated to start functioning in March 2015, will be completed in eight to nine months. It is conceived as an all-in-one facility for victims of abuse, aiming to provide services such as access to police, counselling, forensics, vocational centres and hostels.

Provincial Assembly’s Special Committee on the Protection of Women Against Violence Bill member Saadia Sohail said the project would be initiated next week. Citing security concerns, she refused to provide any further details. Azma Bokhari, another member of the special committee said she viewed progress on this account as a practical implementation of the bill. She said the onus of the delay in the legislation was on certain lawmakers and not the government.

“There is a majority of male lawmakers in the PA. Some of them fear the legislation as it could fuel resentment in their constituencies,” Bokhari said. She said lengthy discussions had created a consensus on major issues such as limiting the use of GPS bracelets to heinous crimes and the redefinition of several concepts including “women” and “abuse.” Bokhari said a few other outstanding issues including the inclusion of adopted children in the protection clause and the inability to incorporate opinions of religious scholars had been taken up recently. She said three parallel meetings had been held on the bill during the assembly’s session that was prorogued last week.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had said that the bill had been pending due to the shortening of the session on account of the local government polls and the reservations of certain lawmakers.

However, the Standing Committee on Gender Mainstreaming Chairperson Raheela Khadim said all reservations regarding the much-debated bill had been allayed. “You can’t really do anything about reservations that keep emerging,” she said.

Khadim said while the government had intended to introduce and pass the bill in the previous session, that was prorogued due to the local bodies elections and security concerns.“Our chief effort was to create a consensus on the bill in accordance with the directions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif,” she said.

Khadim said efforts to create a consensus would prove futile if the arguments put forth did not recognise the prevalence of violence against women in the society. She expressed hope that the bill would be passed in the next session slated to commence in October.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2015.