With more women in Parliament, we have seen many important laws for the protection of women being made...
With more women in Parliament, we have seen many important laws for the protection of women being made, which if implemented, would be a great move for women across the country. In honour of International Women’s Day, this week You! takes a look at the laws and legislations in the Constitution of Pakistan that safeguard the rights of women...
Crimes against women have been prevalent in Pakistan and the number has seen a spike throughout 2018 continuing into 2019; with the most eminent ones being the stabbing of then law student Khadija Siddiqi in 2016 - who was stabbed 23 times by a fellow student - and the rape and murder of minor Zainab in January 2018. Both of these crimes shocked the nation and left the public devastated and enraged.
Unfortunately, crimes committed against women have often been neglected in the past - in terms of coverage and by the authorities. The anomalous crime would make it into the media, and then fade out replace by news that is more ‘important’. But both the cases of Khadija and Zainab did not fade out, as the media persistently pursued these stories pressuring the government to take action.
However, there are still women out there in distress who deserve to get the justice they need, and very little has been done to remedy this. In honour of International Women’s Day, this week You! takes a look at the laws and legislations in the Constitution of Pakistan that safeguard the rights of women...
The Constitution of Pakistan has always given women protection from various crimes and violence, as stated in the document under the Fundamental Rights. Article 25 (1-3) of the Fundamental Rights in the Constitution declares every citizen of Pakistan is not only equal before the law but is also given protection under the law against any kind of discrimination. This Article also states that the State can ‘create special laws and rules for specific issues facing women and children’.
This means that it is the responsibility of the State to provide women protection from violence, abuse and discrimination of any kind. The fact that this is not happening raises questions about the sanctity of the document penned down as a reference for laws to be built upon in the future.
Giving credit where it is due, work done on paper has been almost impressive. With more women in Parliament we have seen many important laws for the protection of women being made, which if implemented, would be a great move for women across the country. 2011 was a good year for legislation for women. In 2011, the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act, 2011 was passed to protect women from this extremely fatal crime. This was followed by the Acid and Burn Crime Bill 2017 which was passed by the National Assembly that provides free medical treatment and rehabilitation for acid burn victims.
Then Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Act, 2011 was also passed the same year, which protects women from being criminalised in the name of custom and provides protection from ‘giving a female in marriage or otherwise in badla-e-sulh, wanni or swara’; ‘depriving women from inheriting property’; forced marriages and marriages with the Holy Quran.
Then fast forward, in 2016 the Criminal Law (Amendment) (Offense of Rape) Act 2016 gave women legal provisions against rape. The Punjab government also passed the Punjab Protection of women against Violence Act in 2016 to protect women against all kinds of abuse and violence including domestic violence.
The only problem we have seen so far is the lack of awareness of these laws and fundamental rights. The majority of women are unaware if they even have any rights, and sadly are not very interested in pursuing these rights even if they know about them. The main reason for this is that the process is not only tedious but will make them social pariahs, even in their own families. Due to this fear, many women cannot handle this since most of them already exist on the periphery of the social setup.
Women who exercise their rights are expected to have nerves of steels to face the backlash from society even for their basic rights; as witnessed in Khadija’s case, who had to face a lot of negativity from majority of the people. She was the victim of a horrendous crime - in which a fellow student, Shah Hussain, stabbed her 23 times - but she was the one who had to face the criticism for speaking up. Luckily, the media played its part and stood by her. It gave her a platform to not only tell her story but also get justice with Shah Hussain, who is in prison despite hailing from an influential family.
Khadija was brave and one of the lucky ones who got justice but there are thousands of women across the country who quietly bear all kinds of crimes because they don’t have confidence in the system. The media can help these women by highlighting their stories, but it is not the duty of media to provide them justice. These women have to be brave to stand up against the criminals and against the social restraints most of them face. A large number of women are scared to approach law enforcers fearing abuse and exploitation at their hands. However, even before they go to seek legal help, their own families dissuade them from seeking justice. It is up to the government and the law to improve the process of law by not only making it accessible to all but also making it free for women to be able to pursue justice without falling prey to social and financial pressures.
With more women in the Parliament there is always hope that they will take steps to improve and strengthen the woman to stand up and demand her rights. The women lawmakers were quite active during the period of 2011-16 as we have seen with the laws, but we have yet to see the new government pass any women-centric laws. There was hope that there would be more laws pushed through parliament with Shireen Mazari as the Minister for Human Rights. Although, by far, not a single women-centric bill has been passed in Parliament; the Ministry of Human Rights has taken steps for an important issue that needed attention. It has launched an awareness campaign on women’s rights to inheritance, under Islamic jurisprudence and the country’s constitution - providing women protection from being deprived of their just inheritance.
The National Assembly has passed four bills so far: The Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Act, 2019; The Wet Pakistan Prohibition of Smoking in Cinema Houses (Repeal) Bill, 2019; The West Pakistan Juvenile Smoking (Repeal) Bill 2018 and the Financial Supplementary (Amendment) Act, 2018. Not a bad run in the short time by the government in power, but we need more work and faster lawmaking from the National Assembly focusing on solutions on the real problems of the people, especially women and children.
The basis of these laws are already provided in the Constitution, all they need is a tweaking with the time and awareness campaigns launched for matters like women’s rights to inheritance; laws on dowry; giving a female in marriage or otherwise in badla-e-sulh, wanni or swara’; forced marriages and marriages with the Holy Quran. The laws must also be reinforced by launching aggressive awareness campaigns. The authorities have to take action against the criminals as well as provide the victims with timely relief.
The Government is still young but there are many expectations mainly because the majority of individuals who are part of it are quite seasoned and have the required skills to expedite lawmaking and making sure they are enforced. There is a lot of hope from the Minister for Human Rights to bring many more laws to the house to improve the human rights in the country especially women. It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Human Rights to ensure that women are provided due protection from various crimes and that their rights are safeguarded; so that Pakistan is not classified among the most dangerous countries for women next time.
