'Opposition to Women Protection Bill sans reason'
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—Secretary Ministry of Law, Justice (retd) Mansoor Ahmed Monday said that hue and cry raised by the opponents of Women Protection Bill was devoid of reason.
He said, when Hadood Ordinance was framed in 1979, some man-made laws were intermingled with Hadood and consequently the people were facing problems.
He said that clauses 10-16 of the Hadood Ordinance purely related to Pakistan Penal Code but unfortunately they were titled under Hadood.
Since the offence under Hadood was an unbailable phenomena, those booked under clause 10-16 were also treated in the same way, he said.
It was observed during the course that after remaining behind the bars for sufficient time, the charges against the accused were not proved and they were acquitted, he said. It means that they had been punished for the crime which they did not commit.
He said the Federal Shariat Court has also advised the government time and again to solve this matter.
It was under these circumstance that need was felt to separate the Hadood and man-made laws, he said.
He said that no change had been made in the text of relevantclauses rather they have been removed from the title of Hadood and have been placed in PPC which is the proper place for them.
He advised the opponents of bill to demonstrate seriousness while dealing with such an issue of national importance rather then politicizing it.