BB wants repeal of Hudood law

Islamabad—Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto has congratulated the PPP Parliamentarians and other Pakistanis on the passage of the Women Protection Bill by the National Assembly.
In a statement Friday the former Prime Minister said that for a quarter of a century the PPP had been struggling to repeal laws discriminatory towards women. She said that the final repeal by the National Assembly demonstrated that this gigantic task could only be overcome when both the government and the opposition united on an issue of national importance despite their divergent viewpoints on other issues.
She said that the ruling party and the opposition had stood by the women of Pakistan in taking the step to repeal laws discriminatory towards women. While noting that the law finally presented to the Assembly was not the one that had been finalised by the select committee, she said that nonetheless it was an improvement on existing laws.
The Party Chairperson also commended the PPP Parliamentarians for voting for the bill with unity, faith and discipline. Benazir Bhutto said that the PPP Parliamentarians had proved that he PPP stood for principles and that it was a Party that strived for the modernisation of Pakistan free from backwardness which guaranteed to the women of Pakistan the equality promised by both religion and the Constitution.
The former Prime Minister said that the PPP has been campaigning for the total repeal of all the five hudood laws that were promulgated in the name of Islam by the military dictatorship of the eighties which had exploited the name of Islam to rob the people of their rights. “These laws were promulgated only to pander to religious extremists with a view to creating a political constituency for the dictator”.
The PPP wants total repeal of the 1979 Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, she said adding, “the Protection of Women Rights Bill was the first mortal blow to demolish the structure of coercive and apartheid laws foisted on the country a quarter of a century ago”.
The PPP reiterates its commitment to undo all the unjust and discriminatory laws against women and minorities foisted on the people by dictatorship in the past, she said. The former Prime Minister said that the PPP has been campaigning for the total repeal of all the five hudood laws that were promulgated in the name of Islam by the military dictatorship of the eighties which had exploited the name of Islam to rob the people of their rights.
The PPP is Party of democracy and committed to work for democracy, gender equality, minority rights, provincial rights and for the emancipation of the people from poverty, hunger, discrimination and prejudice, she said.—Online