Opposition in disarray as NA endorses WP Bill
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—National Assembly on Wednesday passed the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendments) Bill 2006 further to amend the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure and other laws.
PML and allied parties in the lower house, supported by the PPPP, adopted the bill, with slight amendments, as reported by the Select Committee of the House. Amendments were made in the clauses 7, 8, 9 and 12.
A clear divide was seen among the opposition parties as the Mutahida Majlas-e-Aml had walked out of the House and boycotted the proceedings after they opposed the bill and had expressed their views on it. The PPPP supported the Bill while the PML (N) abstained in the voting process although its members opposed the bill during speeches on the legislation.
Elaborating the bill, Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Chaudhry Wasi Zafar said Hudood Laws and Hudood Ordinance are two different things and “in this Bill Hudood Laws have not been touched upon.”
He said everybody knew that women were humiliated by exploiting different methods and the police was poised to corruption. “Half of the corruption was due to Hudood Ordinance. Rape has been expunged from Hudood,” he said. The minister described the Bill as way forward for protection of women from exploitation and provide them justice. The opposition members from MMA and PML opposed the Bill and described it as harmful for the society.
Liaqat Baloch, Farid Piracha, Sahibzada Haji Fazl Karim, Samia Raheel Qazi, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Farida Ahmed Siddiqui and other MMA members national Assembly opposed the bill and threatened to resign if the government passes the bill as reported by the Select Committee.
These members contended that the bill was against the injunctions of Islam. The members raised points on various clauses and suggested a pause to seek afresh the opinion of religious scholars. Later they boycotted the proceedings and walked out of the House. The opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the government should have accepted their suggestion for further consultations for bringing a consensus Bill to the House.
“But our requests were not heeded and now we have to see what purpose we can serve by sitting in this House,” he said, and later led the walk-out by MMA members. PPPP member Sherry Rehman welcomed the bill and supported it. “By supporting this bill we are not supporting the government but the cause of women,” she added. She said lewdness has been clearly differentiated from rape in this bill and that will help protect women from exploitation.
She called upon the MMA not to exploit religion for playing politics and said her party desires to introduce new dimensions in politics. PML MNA Kashmala Tariq said with adoption of this bill the government is fulfilling another promise of President Musharraf made to the nation. MQM’s Parliamentary Leader in National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar said with this law the nation was going to start afresh a journey towards giving due rights to women who constitute half of the population. He said the majority in this House has decided to tread towards the destination envisioned by Founder of the Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He said the religious parties desired to drag the country back to the 16th century. Farooq Sattar congratulated Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the government and appreciated PPPP support to the government in its endeavors to give women more rights.