Pakistan set to change Islamic rape laws

[Neo]

Pakistan set to change Islamic rape laws

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's government proposed amendments to Islamic rape laws which currently place an almost impossible burden of proof on women and expose victims to adultery charges.
http://us.bc.yahoo.com/b?P=lpzwtESO...1089.9043602.9814033.1442997/D=LREC/B=3884659
The move would end years of outrage by rights groups who say that President Pervez Musharraf has failed to tackle widespread discrimination against women in this Islamic republic.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Wednesday approved the draft legislation that would change the 27-year-old laws, Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani told a press conference.

"It will remove hurdles to the provision of justice to women," Durrani said.
The bill is expected to go before parliament next week.

Under Islamic laws imposed by dictator Zia-ul-Haq in 1979, women must produce four adult Muslim male witnesses to prove an act of rape. Women who fail to prove rape can be jailed or even sentenced to death for adultery.
Reports said the amendment would remove the requirement for four witnesses for rape, and make it necessary to have four people testify to any alleged act of adultery.

The Islamic legal system, known as the "Hudood Ordinances", runs parallel to Pakistan's British-influenced secular penal code.
Aziz last week said the government would change laws where necessary "to ensure justice and security for women" and to bring the legislation more in line with Islamic teaching.

Campaigner Mukhtar Mai, who was gang-raped on the orders of a tribal council and later brought her attackers to justice, has focused international attention on the plight of Pakistani women.

Musharraf was criticised last year when he said that getting raped had become a "money making" concern and that many Pakistani women felt it was an easy way to get a foreign visa.

Last month however the military ruler and key US ally changed Pakistani law to allow women detained on charges of adultery and other minor crimes to be released on bail. Hundreds of women were later freed.

Human Rights Watch said in a report in January that violence against women remained rampant in Pakistan and slammed the government for not tackling the problem.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060802/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanwomenjusticerape_060802144500

 

[Neo]

The government must ensure passage of Hudood amendment bill

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

javascript:; http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2006\08\02\story_2-8-2006_pg3_1
EDITORIAL: The government must ensure passage of Hudood amendment bill
The government has come up with a draft law seeking to amend the controversial Hudood Ordinances. The bill will be presented today to the Federal Cabinet at its meeting. If approved by the cabinet it will be placed before the National Assembly during its upcoming session on August 4. The draft bill, titled the Criminal Law Amendment (Protection of Women) Bill, 2006, may not make the more radical reformers happy — the reactions so far show that it hasn’t — but under the circumstances is definitely welcome. We say this because, given how badly these ordinances affected the people, especially women, before the society can take the fight against them to its logical conclusion, i.e., getting them repealed, it was important to at least chisel some of their rougher edges. The draft bill seeks to do just that. Let’s consider.

One of the worst aspects of these ordinances related to the offence of zina. The condition for a rape victim to produce four adult Muslim men to prove the crime made it impossible to convict rapists. Invariably, the complaining woman would then be subjected to the charge of having committed zina by her own admission. Hundreds of women languished in jails because of this. The draft bill has taken note of this and removed the offence of zina bil jabr (rape) from the ordinances and added it to the Pakistan Penal Code. Doing so removes the requirement of four witnesses. Most rape cases, if the draft bill is approved, will now be decided on the basis of indirect or circumstantial evidence.

Another important step proposed by the draft bill is to make sex with a girl below the age of 16, with or without her consent, the offence of rape. This means that even consensual sex with a girl below 16 would be considered statutory rape. This should help discourage early marriages and their consummation. Similarly, any crime not mentioned in the Quran or Sunnah, or for which no punishment has been prescribed therein, is liable to taazir. This is significant because in the case of taazir, as opposed to hadd, the judge has the discretion to decide the punishment depending on various factors, including any mitigating circumstances or extenuating grounds.

The draft also takes cognisance of allegation of zina. A judge hearing such a case would require four credible eyewitnesses to the offence presented before the court by the accuser in order to determine that a case of zina can be tried and the accused summoned. Moreover, only a sessions court may take cognisance of zina and qazf cases and the offences have been made bailable so that the accused do not languish in jails. “The police will have no authority to arrest any one in such cases unless so directed by the Court of Sessions and such directions cannot be issued except either to compel attendance in court or in the event of a conviction.”

The draft has also removed the requirement of two adult Muslim witnesses as proof of qazf (wrongful accusation). Instead, a confession by the accused, or the allegation before the court, will now constitute qazf. The bill also seeks to make failure to prove zina liable to prosecution for qazf. The draft would delete the definition of marriage in the zina ordinance as a “valid marriage”, on the grounds that this has led to several cases of women being punished for zina after getting married for a second time only for the reason that they could not produce documentary evidence that they had divorced their previous husbands. Another amendment, to the Family Courts Act of 1964, provides a procedure for the dissolution of a marriage where the husband accuses his wife of zina and the wife denies it.

All this, as we have noted above, is short of a repeal, but significant nonetheless. An important observation relates to the punishments. The punishment for rape will be death or life imprisonment. This is too harsh and likely to work to the advantage of the accused by making the judge extremely careful about conviction. There is need to lessen the sentence because the deterrent value relates to the rate and certainty of punishment and not to how harsh the sentence is. Unfortunately, this well-known and tested principle is generally ignored in this country. Since rape was becoming a major problem, it was decided to punish it with death. However, given the anomalies in the Hudood Ordinances, people accused of rape walked off merrily while the women were left in the clink.

The draft will now go to the cabinet and the National Assembly. While the cabinet will very likely approve it today, the NA proceedings could be trickier. There are many League leaders, apart from the rightwing MMA opposition members, who are not really enamoured of moderation, tolerance and reforms. There is the likelihood of some such legislators trying to throw a spanner in the works. That would be unfortunate and we suggest that the government be ready to face them. These amendments are the least we expect from the government; and while we are prepared to accept that this was the best the government could do under the circumstances, we definitely want it to do it and not allow this effort to fall through.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\08\02\story_2-8-2006_pg3_1

 

[Neo]

Sparten,

What changes do you think are required, should we go for a secular law or is there another alternative to merge islamic views with western laws?

I'd like to hear your proffessional pov's.

Thanks!

 

[A.Rahman]

Islamic laws are correct but the way these jahil mullahs implement them is wrong, we should have some kind of council of scholars, who are educated & wise, they will be better in giving their opinions.

 

[Neo]

What about a secular justice mechanism? Eventhough we're an Islamic Republic, can't we have a secular court like Trukey?

 

[Neo]

Pakistan moves closer to Islamic law reform

By Arshad Sharif

ISLAMABAD (Reuters)- Pakistan edged closer on Wednesday to reforming Islamic laws that discriminate against women, one of which makes rape victims liable to prosecution for adultery unless they produce four male witnesses.

A cabinet meeting approved in principle a draft of amendments to the Hudood Ordinances, as the laws are called, that will be presented to the National Assembly.

The draft plans to remove the law on rape from the Hudood Ordinances and introduce a new law that will come under Pakistan's secular penal code.
"The federal cabinet in principle gave approval for presenting Hudood laws' amendments in the National Assembly," Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told a newsconference.

There are two sometimes overlapping legal systems in
Pakistan, one is based on Islamic sharia law and the other is derived from law of former colonial power Britain.
A ministerial committee has been formed to check over the draft one more time, before the bill, called the Criminal Law Amendment for Protection of Women, is presented to the assembly.

The requirement for a rape victim to produce four pious male witnesses to support her accusation will be removed.
Sex with a girl under the age of 16, with or without her consent, will be
deemed as rape under the proposed amendments.

There will also be provisions made in the penal code to cover cases such as kidnapping and forced elopement which had not been adequately covered by the Islamic laws, and people convicted of trafficking women for prostitution could face jail terms of up to 25 years.

The proposed amendments proscribe the death penalty for gang-rape and make publishing the name of rape victim an offence.

"The amendments proposed by the government shatter a myth held for 27 years that Hudood laws are divine laws," said Naeem Mirza, director of the Aurat (Women) Foundation, an NGO at the forefront for the struggle to change the laws.

Once the bill is sent to the assembly, it will have to pass through several more stages before there is a vote on it.

President Pervez Musharraf has assured rights activists that he will back moves to amend or repeal the Islamic laws.
But with an election due by the end of next year, critics fear the government could lose some of its resolve should it need any favours from the Islamist opposition.

Attempts to amend the Hudood Ordinances have been made before, but past Pakistani leaders have ducked the issue out of fear of a confrontation with the country's influential, conservative Islamist parties.
The Hudood Ordinances, enforced in 1979 by the then military dictator Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, laid down punishments for crimes such as rape, theft and adultery.

Under the Hudood code, a man and woman found guilty of having sex outside of marriage could be sentenced to death by stoning or 100 lashes, while thieves would have their right hands amputated, but these punishments have seldom been invoked, let alone carried out.

 

[Thunder]

Under the islamic law, if 4 witness cannot be found, then the person has to say that allah saw it 4 times(note: i heard something like this quite a while ago by a known scholar in pakistan. I can't really remeber what it was but what i said is close, but not 100% correct)
Like said above, the islamic law is correct but our mullahs and leaders are screwing it up.

PS: Pakistan can never go secular, because if we were to go secular then we would have neer separated from india in the first place. Pakistan was created for only one reason, and that was that it would lead the ummah, and be a place where a muslim could follow islam peacefully.

Zia ul haq said" Take islam out of pakistan, and make it a secular state, it will collaspe"

 

[Spring Onion]

Under the islamic law, if 4 witness cannot be found, then the person has to say that allah saw it 4 times(note: i heard something like this quite a while ago by a known scholar in pakistan. I can't really remeber what it was but what i said is close, but not 100% correct)

First of all u must check what the BS u had posted and dont indulge in another religion when u dont know anything about it. u heard something like ?
Oh come on we are ur neighbour we know ur problem so plz go to some other thread and than bash us :biggrin:

 

[Averroes]

What about a secular justice mechanism? Eventhough we're an Islamic Republic, can't we have a secular court like Trukey?

We struggle with all these concepts, socialism, capitalism, marxism, and all other forms of politics that we think might suit us, but after careful thinking you come to the conclusion that there's nothing that can substitute God's law.

In Turkey, secular court works well, because that is what suits them. Pakistan has a much stronger muslim identity because of our oppression under the Polytheists, but that doesn't mean we can't put in secular thoughts that are in congruence with Islam. Secular isn't wrong, it's simply when you abandon the role of Religion in life completely and reach a decadent lifestyle. When you think about it apart from certain modes of their lives, the west is more islamic than most "islamic" countries because it has a set of firm laws that are implemented throughout the country which guarantee everyone security and equal opportunities.

 

[Thunder]

Actully secularism does'nt really work well in turkey. It's a secualr state but's that's about it. Some people do take advantage of that, but some don'tJana saab je, i'll try finding a link about what i said above.

 

[Awesome]

There's nothing wrong with secularism at all. It's just keeping religion out of politics. No one's saying live secular lives. Pakistan is 95% Muslim. Secularism won't stop making Pakistan a Muslim land.

Think about it this way. Why should 5% Pakistanis not be FULL FLEDGED Pakistanis?

By denouncing secularism you're sentencing 7-8 Million Pakistanis to become 2nd class citizens!

 

[Neo]

Thats exactly my point!!

 

[Thunder]

There's nothing wrong with secularism at all. It's just keeping religion out of politics. No one's saying live secular lives. Pakistan is 95% Muslim. Secularism won't stop making Pakistan a Muslim land.

Think about it this way. Why should 5% Pakistanis not be FULL FLEDGED Pakistanis?

By denouncing secularism you're sentencing 7-8 Million Pakistanis to become 2nd class citizens!

Yaar tha's not the point. We can start by making politicies secualr but then slowly slowley people will make the whole damn country secular. Look at malysia, they are devloped, muslims. Unlike pakistan they have 11% non muslims in their population. Yet they all live peacefully. Why can't we do that?

 

[Neo]

Eliminating illteracy would be a good start. Turkey and Malaysia have invested heavily in human development.
We still have a long way to go!

 

[Averroes]

Mosque in the morning, Disco in the evening - turkey as a turk on pdf summarized it.

Islam stresses Knowledge to the utmost, but people do not understand this. A Scholar's ink is holier than the blood of a martyr, also a scholar dies the death of a martyr.