‘Women protection law not un-Islamic’

LAHORE

Speakers at a Punjab University Law College seminar said Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act was not un-Islamic or unconstitutional. 

They mentioned various versus from Quran and Sunnah and Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan to substantiate their legal and constitutional point of view on the act. 

According to a press release, the discussion was headed by Law College Principal Dr Shazia Qureshi. The seminar discussed the Act’s implications in the province and its shortcomings. 

The speakers said spirit of Islam must be looked and traditions of Prophet (PBUH) must be followed. They said this was a positive step that had been taken to respond to issues that disproportionately affect women. 

They said the Act was more specific and had a wider scope in nature and was intended to be applied with greater force. They said the Act was intended to reconcile the disputes rather than ending up with divorce. 

Giving recommendations, the speakers said section 2 (e), (Definitions), “dependent child” means a male child who is below the age of twelve years of age and includes any adopted, step or foster child and suggested that female child should also be covered under the definition of dependent child. They said section 2 (r) (Definitions) “Psychological abuse/Violence” should be eliminated. They said as psychological aspect varies from case to case and it becomes difficult to prove and measure this violence since there can be no fixed scale to determine it. Also the domestic, sexual, economic abuses already cover psychological aspect. They said since this law covered both civil and criminal domain, a fine line needed to get drawn for such hybrid structure created under this Act.

support: Right activists and organisations in a gathering Thursday stressed all citizens, especially women rights organisation, human right organisations, lawyers, doctors, teachers, human right defenders and members of civil society to raise a collective voice to show support to Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act. 

They said: “We congratulate the women survivors who have courageously recounted unspeakable violence against them. Domestic violence doesn’t just happen to women. It happens to families. We need to make our country a place where women and children are safe. We believe that the current landmark legislation will provides response and rehabilitation protection mechanism for women survivors of violence by defining certain forms of violence, previously not included in legal definitions, economic and psychological violence. The protection creates an enabling environment to encourage and facilitate women freely to play their desired role in society”. 

They demanded the Punjab government not to revoke the act. It is unanimously passed by a democratically elected provincial assembly of Punjab in order to maintain the integrity of democratic process, they said.