WAF expresses concern over planned govt-JUI (F) talks on two pro-women bills

Islamabad

Women Action Forum (WAF) on Tuesday expressed concern over news reports about planned negotiations between the government and JUI (F) on two pro-women bills.

These two laws titled Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2015 and Anti-Honour Killings Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2015 are among the bills, including that related to PIA’s privatisation, which will be discussed by a committee comprising of all parties before the joint sitting of the parliament.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Forum said that the two bills have already been unanimously passed by the Senate, including Senators belonging to the JUI-F, in 2014 and 2015. “WAF is equally concerned about reports that the government has proposed amendments in the anti-rape bill that will dilute the focus on providing justice to rape victims by expanding the scope of the bill to cover elements not related to rape,” mentions the statement.

The statement takes the stand that both laws, passed by the Senate, are in accordance with constitutional guarantees of equality and protection of life and aimed at protecting women against victimisation and abuse.

“These will fulfill the commitment made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to make legislation more effective against heinous crimes committed in the name of “honour.” The honour killing law takes honour crimes out of the ambit of compromise and pardon. The anti-rape law’s objectives are that the victims or survivors of these heinous crimes are provided justice and the criminals responsible for such offence are duly convicted,” mentions the statement.

WAF says that the law will strengthen the investigation procedures, will make medical examination including DNA tests of the victim and survivor and the accused mandatory, will make unauthorised disclosure of the identity of rape victim and survivor punishable and will also make custodial rape punishable besides expanding the definition of custodial rape to include rape in custody of police, orphanages, shelters, hospitals, etc.

“It is difficult to understand why the government is negotiating with the JUI-F on bills that already have their approval when they were unanimously passed by the Senate in 2014 and 2015.”

It says that the religio-political parties that have never received a strong public mandate, appear to continue to hold the government hostage and manage to use coercive measures to deny women their rights. “They should not be allowed to succeed in forcing the government to barter women’s rights.”

The statement says that the reports also suggest that the bills may be referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). It insists the government not to forget that CII has made a laughingstock of itself in past by insisting that DNA cannot be used as evidenced in rape cases, and along with the religio-political parties expressed their contempt for women’s rights in their vitriolic opposition to the Punjab Women Protection Act.

“Their public arguments denying the realities of domestic violence and ridiculing the impact of such abuse or its threat on women has exposed their misogynist worldview. It is time the government of Pakistan treated women as equal citizens not as pawns held hostage to the archaic patriarchal mindsets of a band of men,” says the statement.