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NA body okays women’s bill, adultery kept out of PPC

By Shahzad Raza

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary select committee approved the Protection of Women Bill on Monday, without adding a proposed clause that would make adultery a criminal offence under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The bill was later presented in the National Assembly. Dr Sher Afgan, parliamentary affairs minister, told journalists that the NA would debate the bill on Wednesday or Thursday.

The committee approved the bill after hectic consultations on Monday. The MMA and PML-Nawaz continued to boycott the committee. The committee chairman, Sardar Nasrullah Dareshak, told journalists that all members of the committee supported the bill except Noorul Haq Qadri, a treasury MNA from FATA.

Earlier, government members had proposed inserting a clause in the bill which would allow courts to deal with cases of Zina-bil-Raza or adultery under Hudood laws or the PPC. The PPPP and some PML members of the committee opposed the clause. Raja Pervez Ashraf, PPPP secretary general, and Sherry Rehman, PPPP information secretary, assured the committee that the PPPP would vote in favour of the bill, provided its objections to certain clauses were attached to the bill when presented in the NA. The PPPP submitted a four-point dissenting note on the bill, while Qadri submitted a 10-point note. Sources privy to the meeting said Qadri opposed almost the entire bill.

The committee accepted an amendment from the PPPP that the media could report cases of rape subject to the consent of the victim. However, the punishment for reporting such cases without consent was increased from six months to one year.

The committee also accepted a proposal from MQM members that only men who were “truthful and pure from major sins” could be eyewitnesses in adultery cases. It rejected a PPPP proposal that women could also be eyewitnesses.

The committee decided that no court would take cognisance of the offence of Qazf, except on a complaint lodged in a court of competent jurisdiction. Dr Aamir Liaquat, minister of state for religious affairs, told Daily Times that under one proposed amendment, marriage to a girl of less than 16 years of age without the consent of her guardian would be considered rape.

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