‘Women Protection Bill is a ‘ good for nothing’ exercise at a wrong time and is An eye wash By: Amjad Malik, MA, LLM
Recent passing of the Women Protection Bill from the lower house of the Parliament has started a new debate in Pakistan. This bill which has given message of good days to come for women as well as has sparked an Islamic and non Islamic debate on the contents quite to the contrary to what the reality is. We have not yet forgotten the effect of Danish cartoons and here come an other jolt in the form of criticism right to the top on our ‘Hadood laws’ which is untimely, un thoughtful and very callous and above all it does not take into account Muslim sensitivities at this crucial time within which we are going through when the war is at our door front.
WPB seems a tester to initiate a debate that ‘Hadood Laws’ and punishments are ‘nauzbillah’ unworkable and it will lead to a bigger debate on issues like, Drinking Alcohol, Saudi Laws, Pardah, arrange marriages, and above all blasphemy laws versus freedom of expression and Super powers & think tanks will be finding an excuse to either declare states non tolerant if public protests in the country on these irrelevant issues or finding an excuse to attack them considering them a category of state and people who wishes to bring Islamic revolution and are a threat to world peace, both situations are fatal for Muslims and in particular Pakistanis.
This is truly starting a dividing line and Alas we are not united as one nation as well as not mindful of the gravity of the situation. No civilian rule promote fundamentalism and or terrorism but it is insane to bring terrorism at our door step either. Pakistan can never be Turkey or Egypt as envisaged by our so called, self imposed rulers and these efforts will weaken the moderate and middle class Muslims further which will have dangerous repercussions. Pakistan as an ideological state is a thorn in the eyes of West and we all must protect this from all dangers and sooner the better. I am still of the view as have advocated for years that, ‘Rule of law’ has its own price and at this moment Pakistan desperately needs a ruler who can make rule of law a distinctive feature of his governance and initiate a ruthless department building process as well as accountability which include along with others ‘judiciary’ and ‘military’ as ‘all citizens are equal in the eyes of law’ and he at least intends to eradicate all the evils in civil society and brings a reform package for the dying middle class and poorer and ensure justice at the door step of common man. Justice delayed is justice denied and Justice should be seen to be done at least in an Islamic Society, in Pakistan we are 50 years behind in giving justice to nation and have learnt nothing from our past and are not ashamed of our glorious heritage. Only fair, faster and firmer justice can ensure that no one dares to breach the core essence of Pakistan’s constitution & brings insecurity to its national assets if we are strong inside (law an order) and economically viable (strong economy). We need a strong system and reliance of that system and continuity where no institution start waiting for its term but institution start acting to protect the system of Parliamentary Democracy. Pakistani common man still is ready for sacrifice and can live in poverty, restlessness, without food, hygiene or modern facilities but they can not live in an unjust society where might is right is applied as a principle and incident like Bajaur happens on a whole scale where 80 people dies and no one knows who killed them. Unless people get their basic rights as per right, democracy can not flourish in Pakistan, as we desperately need a social reform package if we are to survive as nation, otherwise we will be brought down and limited to a multi national companies & mafia interest sometimes land mafia and other times stock exchange mafia. True problem in Pakistan is rule of law, education, social reforms and justice. Time is ripe that Judiciary gets its teeth out and do justice with common man. WPB is one of the tricks of juggler and these tricks are to deviate nations attention of what could not be delivered and to give them a dream unattainable. Women needs education and empowerment, very rarely ever, a rape case was decided in completeness under ‘Hadood laws’ in Pakistan, simply because, the basic requirement of 4 witness wasn't met, therefore, courts almost in all such cases punished rapist under Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan, the other venomous propaganda that victim of rape (women) gets into trouble at the hands of police because of influence and money used by big people, have some truth in it, but this highhandedness one observes in every walk of life in Pakistan and you name it and it is there. So in short, the answer to this lies in reforming police powers by completely doing away with their ingrained practice of misusing powers in return for money and not making drastic changes in the law itself. Ideally, police can be barred from imprisoning any women until court decision and there must be presumption in favour of release of women out of custody on bail on conditions with or without sureties and in rare circumstances they are detained. They must only be imprisoned after having been sentenced. I feel this is an illusion an all eye wash, if the current ruler(s) were ever serious they wouldn't have waited for 7 years to bring this only change to please their master. I will only quote one sentence from Charles Cannedy’s book, ‘The Status of women in Pakistan in Islamization at P.74, where he says , “women fearing conviction under section 10(2) frequently bring charges of rape under 10(3) against their alleged partners. The FSC finding no circumstantial evidence to support the latter charge, convict the male accused under section 10(2)—the women is exonerated for any wrong doing due to reasonable doubt rule” The current ratio of convictions tell the whole story as to how many women have been sentenced under ‘Hadood laws’, its police powers which needs to be bridled not to change laws on the whole scale basis thus wasting nation’s time and money. Its time that we get down to true business which is taking off the uniform and hold free, fair and impartial elections under judiciary. Nation is sick of mockery and false pretences to extend unlawful regimes and can not be made fool any longer.Amjad Malik is a Solicitor-Advocate of Supreme Court of England and Wales and Legal Advisor PML(N)
- Posted by valiantpk on 14/12/2006.
- valiantpk's site
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