Only MQM seems to be supporting women's rights bill 100%

[Khehkeshan]

And MQM also had the biggest rally in support of the Womens’ Rights Bill which amends the pro-rapist “Hudood Law”. While a lot of work still has to be done in making our laws just, even this small step is not being allowed by the backward minded.

And I would also commend PPP on their stand. PML and MMA are true idiots.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/09/13/top1.htm

What made PML turn to MMA: MQM rejects changes in Hudood laws

Dawn Report

KARACHI, Sept 12: An influential group in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League scuttled the government’s deal with the Pakistan People’s Party on amendments to the controversial Hudood laws and instead favoured an unseemly compromise with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, it emerged on Tuesday.

Sources told Dawn that most PML legislators were totally bewildered by the party’s sudden realisation of need for MMA cooperation — even if it came at a price.

They explained that the PML, riven by internal disputes, preferred an awkward embrace with the MMA to a brief handshake with the PPP.

**“And what have we gained by allowing the MMA to water down the amendments to the Hudood laws? The PPP is up in arms. Our touchy coalition partner, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, is on the warpath. And human rights organisations are pouring scorn on us,” said a minister on condition that he be remained unnamed.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain announced on Tuesday that his party would oppose the extra-parliamentary agreement under which the PML and the MMA had sought to make changes in the bill recently tabled in the National Assembly to amend the widely misused Hudood laws.**

Alluding to government legislators’ statements describing the PML-MMA deal as democracy’s triumph, Mr Hussain said: “How can the proposed amendments, which push the country’s women into a cave of oppression, be termed democracy’s triumph?”

These amendments are completely un-Islamic and against the tenets of the Quran and Hadith,” he said in a statement released by the party’s international secretariat in London.

Mr Hussain criticised MMA leaders for first boycotting the National Assembly select committee constituted to finalise amendments to the Hudood laws and subsequently holding extra-parliamentary talks with the PML.

Sources close to the president said the government’s initial optimism about the unhindered passage of the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2006 with PPP support was checked by the influential clique in the ruling PML.

“It was clear from the beginning that the MMA would bitterly oppose the bill. PML-N legislators also expressed distaste for amendments to the Hudood laws. Reliance was obviously being placed on support by coalition partners and the PPP. But the chaudhrys of Gujrat put the fear of God into the government by saying that the PPP would betray at the last moment,” said the minister.

However, PPP information secretary Sherry Rehman told Dawn that her party was prepared to support the bill as drafted by the National Assembly select committee.

“We obviously had reservations on the select committee’s draft bill — which found expression in our note of dissent -– but by and large we were ready to help the government. If the bill had been tabled in the National Assembly, we would have voted for it,” she said.

Her remarks were corroborated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan who said PPP representatives on the select committee seemed to have clear instructions from their self-exiled leader, Benazir Bhutto, to back the government on amendments to the Hudood laws.

“The draft prepared by the select committee says that ‘passage of the bill is approved with consensus’. We had the numerical strength to pass the bill. It is beyond me why the MMA was roped in to help the government pass the bill,” said Mr Afgan.

[roadrunner]

Re: Only MQM seems to be supporting women's rights bill 100%

They havent drowned down anything. It's more or less the same.

[system]

Re: Only MQM seems to be supporting women’s rights bill 100%

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\09\13\story_13-9-2006_pg3_1
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/images/shim.gif

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EDITORIAL: Has Musharraf caved in to the mullahs?

What, in God’s name, is going on? Has President Pervez Musharraf “caved in” to the mullahs, as a respected British paper commented yesterday, or is there something we have missed because we are so stupid? We refer to the government’s widely perceived “surrender” before the mullahs of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal on the Protection of Women Bill. Consider.

The original demand of “enlightened moderates” referred to a repeal of the man-made Hudood laws. But the government got cold feet when the mullahs insisted they were not man-made (by Zia ul Haq) but Allah-ordained. So the government dragged its feet for five years and then finally plucked up the courage to get its ears wet by drafting a weak amendment to the Hudood Ordinance. To avoid provoking the mullahs it was called the Protection of Women Bill and not an anti-Hudood bill. But apparently even that watered down bill was objectionable as far as the mullahs were concerned. When the MMA threatened to resign if the Protection of Women Bill wasn’t withdrawn, the government constituted a nine-member committee of “religious scholars” to parley with the MMA team. On the basis of those talks, the government has now acceded to amending the draft to the extent of making zina bil-raza (adultery and fornication) an offence punishable under tazeer — man-made law or the Criminal Procedure Code — while zina bil-jabr (rape) would be an offence under hadd — the ‘Islamic law’ (as though Islamic law is not man made!). The original Protection of Women Bill had sought to punish adultery under tazeer — which is to say that the evidence of four witnesses would be required according to the hadd procedure but punishments meted out under the Criminal Procedure Code. Further, in the case of zina bil-jabr, the offence was covered only under tazeer and excluded from hadd. In other words, the evidence of four witnesses to rape was not required and conviction under normal laws of the land would suffice. The gist of these amendments was to make it easier to convict men accused of rape by women (which has proved impossible under the Hudood ordinance) and difficult to convict women accused of adultery by men.

**Now, however, under mullah pressure, the government intends to do the opposite by making both adultery and rape offences under the Hudood laws as well as tazeer, depending upon circumstances and prima facie evidence and whether conditions for the case to be tried under hadd are met first, and notwithstanding anything in any law in operation, according to the discretion of the judge in question. In other words, if this were to come to pass, a door would be opened to constant wrangling over when and why a certain case should be tried under hudood and/or tazeer and the given judge would in effect become a lawmaker. Similarly, adultery is now to be treated under the charge of “lewdness” which is a new category put into the Pakistan Penal Code and defined thus: “A man and a woman are said to commit lewdness if they wilfully have sexual intercourse with one another and shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine.” The third proposed change is where the actual sting resides: It replaces Section 3 of the Hudood law with, “In the interpretation and application of this ordinance, the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah shall have effect notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force.”
**
It is not difficult to see that with the third amendment, the wheel will come full circle because there would be constant friction over what it is that is according to the injunctions of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. **Essentially, this means that the bill, if passed with these amendments, will put society in general and women in particular at the mercy of judges of variable calibre who in turn will be under constant pressure from organised and violent religious forces to deliver judgments in an “Islamic” fashion.
**
We had supported the original bill on the logic that it was a step forward towards an eventual repeal of the Hudood laws because it would give some palpable relief to the women of Pakistan who have had to bear the cross of these bad laws since the 1980s. To this end, we had also pleaded with those elements among the liberal sections of society who will not settle for anything short of a repeal to give the government a chance to at least do some good. Then, when the bill came up in a meeting of the cabinet, we were surprised to hear some ministers raise their voices against some of its provisions. That was the first warning bell. However, after some dithering, the bill was sent to the National Assembly’s Select Committee. Voices were again raised against it by some treasury members. Such was the opposition to it from within the government itself that General Pervez Musharraf had to intervene and instruct the treasury to push the bill through. While this push and pull was going on, the government committed the most stupid act of all in Balochistan — it killed Nawab Akbar Bugti. That killing produced a groundswell of emotions and protests. The opposition got together and even treasury members could not openly support an action that had emerged from the presidency.

The fallout of that action is now being borne by a legislation that was long on the anvil. Call it irony or a comedy of the grotesque but the MMA, which put a foot in its mouth after Nawab Bugti’s killing by saying that it will play on its own pitch and if it had to resign it would do so on the Protection of Women Bill rather than the Nawab’s killing, has managed to blackmail the government. And the government seems to have caved in.

The consequences of caving in to the mullahs will be grave for Pakistani women, of course, but General Musharraf’s personal credibility will also take a big hit. He will surely be put on the mat by the international media while he is in the US and all his hard work in getting this bill to pass before he lands in Washington to crow about his enlightened moderation will have been in vain. The main PMLQ culprits in this fiasco are well known as are the more or less visible faces in the government who are trying to sell this sham to the nation and the international community. It is still not too late for the Musharraf regime to align with the mainstream PPP and tell the mullahs to go fly a kite. *
](“http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2006%href�\story_13-9-2006_pg3_1”)

[system]

Re: Only MQM seems to be supporting women's rights bill 100%

The MQM and PML are a truly moronic party with little sense. People like them really put Pakistan to Shame.
The MQM minus their more violent prone side, and PPP are rational parties just like any secular party, but sadly they dont get the support they need.. The Musharaf govt is to weak to stand on its own without the religous parties to support them...
Musharaf need to gather up the courage and do what is right as the sole power in Pakistan... He should unilaterally dispose of this stupid law on his own regardless of the trouble it will cause him. If it took a dictator to make the laws, it will take another to get rid of them.

[mAd_ScIeNtIsT]

Re: Only MQM seems to be supporting women's rights bill 100%

Interesting that the PPP are willing to support Hudood reform NOW when in opposition, but were unwilling to try and reform the Ordnance when they themselves were in power. Twice. Too busy looting the country I guess.... Swiss mansions don't buy themselves!