Revolutionary in spirit

March 6, 2016

The women protection law passed by the Punjab Assembly has drawn extreme reactions from various quarters

Revolutionary in spirit

Punjab Assembly’s newly enacted bill ‘Protection of Women Against Violence’ seems to have become a matter of ‘honour’ for the clergy and some religious political parties. They have waged a campaign against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N).

The law, passed in the last week of February by the assembly of the country’s largest province, makes physical violence, abusive language, stalking, cyber crimes, sexual violence, psychological and emotional abuse against women a formal crime.

The law helps the victim women by removing bureaucratic hurdles and giving them access to justice.

Under the law, a toll-free universal access number (UAN) would be launched to record complaints, women protection officers appointed to deal with the complainants and committees set up for reconciliation and resolution of disputes as a first step. The law will not allow aggrieved women to be forced out of their houses; rather the accused can be made to leave the house for two days. If a man does not refrain, he can be cuffed with GPS tracking bracelets on court orders. Removing or tampering with the tracking bracelets could lead to a jail term for up to one year and fine between Rs50, 000 to Rs200, 000.

The bill was approved by the cabinet in May 2015 and first laid before the Punjab Assembly in June 2015. The assembly finally passed it on February 24 in the wake of March 8 International Women’s Day.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), went as far as calling the passing of the bill a cowardly step by the legislators and has addressed them as Zan-Mureed (almost a term of abuse that literally means ‘subservient to a woman’).

A couple of days after the JUI-F leader’s objections, other religious parties also started raising their voice against the law. Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, who is also a senior leader of the JUI-F, took up the matter on his own and called a CII meeting to review the bill even when, constitutionally, the CII has completed its work of reviewing laws and cannot take up a law until it is advised by the parliament to do so.

Cases of violence against women are increasing in Punjab. "This law is not anti-men but anti-violence. The word "man" has never been used but "victim" and "aggressor" who can be male or female."

The Council has remarked that Article 6 of the Constitution, which deals with treason, could be applied against the Punjab Assembly for approving a bill without the council’s consent. Interestingly, the CII chairman said the council was getting the law translated into Urdu before it could deliberate on it. He said the council has also "reviewed" a draft of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Domestic Violence Bill, which contains some ‘inappropriate clauses’ too.

"This is not a religious controversy but an issue of patriarchy and male dominance in our society," says Fauzia Viqar, chairperson Punjab Commission on the Status of Women. She says the bill was passed after more than a year’s deliberations. "Whenever the issue of curbing domestic violence is raised, the patriarchal society created hurdles in its approval. There have been efforts to pass a bill against domestic violence since early 2000. There have been bills on violence against women in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and there have been no issues."

On the other hand, she says, the civil society is unhappy because the law does not criminalise the act but merely intervenes to try to resolve the conflict. She says the law was in accordance with the Constitution. Article 25, clause three says, "Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the protection of women and children."

Read also: Another law for women

Senior Member, Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit Law and Order, Salman Sufi who was instrumental in preparing the draft of the bill after many consultations, tells TNS that such laws are a good initiative in taking measures regarding violence against women in the society. "The bill was unanimously passed and the criticism has no solid ground. The draft was approved after many meetings and incorporates all reservations of members of the civil society, leaders of the opposition, Islamic scholars. And this is first such move providing protection through an in-built implementation mechanism to ensure speedy justice-delivery to women victims of violence."

He says, according to official reports, cases of violence against women are increasing in Punjab. "This law is not anti-men but anti-violence. The word "man" has never been used but "victim" and "aggressor" who can be male or female."

Domestic violence is always an under-reported matter in a Pakistani society. However, non government organisations claim the number of such cases is not less than thousands. Internationally, Pakistan is ranked among the top countries where violence against women is prevalent and there are fewer measures to curb it.

"I have read the bill thoroughly and found nothing objectionable in it against men. Time has come that we should accept change and encourage our women who are more than fifty per cent of the total population, to be empowered and take part in country’s progress rather than being tortured and harassed in the four walls of houses," says Nasira Javed Iqbal, a former judge of Lahore High Court.

She says almost 85 percent women of the country of all classes face domestic violence in some form. "Any law that challenges patriarchy will be difficult to accept in a society like ours. If we start giving respect to women and value them it can help in the progress of our society," she says. "The first effort for a domestic violence bill was made by Mehnaz Rafi in the National Assembly in 2002 that could not succeed. Now, after devolution and almost 14 years, at least Punjab has passed a bill against domestic violence which I think is first step towards progress of the society."

Civil society and human rights organisations have welcomed the bill. "The bill appears to be a rather comprehensive attempt to institute a system for the prevention of violence against women and for protection and rehabilitation of the women victims. These are all much-needed measures that deserve praise but it is important to remember that cosmetic and purely procedural changes have not had any impact in the past," reads the statement of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Revolutionary in spirit