Taking part in discussion on the bill seeking end to 'Karo-Kari' in the Senate on Tuesday, Senator Farhatullah Babar said this bill touches upon three most important laws - the law to deal with honour killings, Hudood Ordinance 1979 relating to the offence of zina and the law relating to blasphemy. The government, however, has proceeded to make cursory amendments in a great hurry without giving any thought to the views of the opposition political parties, NGOs, women organisations and members of the civil society, he said.
Farhatullah Babar said it has not even considered views of the commissions that were set up by two different governments on the Hudood Ordinance.
The senator pointed out two "most serious shortcomings" in the existing laws on murder due to which offenders in Karo-Kari cases get away.
First is the right of the relatives to waive 'Qisas', which is contained in Section 309 of the PPC. Section 309 has not been touched in the bill, he added.
The second is the provision of 'Sulhe Badl' in Section 310 of the PPC, under which the right to Qisas is made compoundable.
Thus, under this section, murders committed in the name of honour are also compoundable and the offender can get away by paying a small sum in compensation.
Section 306 of the PPC is yet another big loophole in the existing law due to which certain categories of offender can get away without any punishment. This section has also not been changed.
He said in the case of honour crimes, usual Valis are disqualified to represent the victim. Relatives of the victim can be Valis only as long as they have no sympathy with the offender and are in no way in league with him. They can be treated as Valis only if they are not forced for any reason to compound the right to Qisas or to waive the Qisas.
Similarly, in the new bill an amendment has been made in the Hudood Ordinance relating only to zina so that no police officer below the rank of a superintendent shall investigate such offence.
The Hudood Ordinances were promulgated in 1979 in a hurry without any debate in the Parliament. Scholars have described these as discriminatory and against the tenants of Islam.
The experience of the past 25 years has also brought to the fore serious shortcomings. They violated the Constitution and are discriminatory against women. Two commissions, set up by the government, one in 1994 and the other in 2000, recommended their repeal.
The major issues in the Zina Ordinance are exclusion of women's evidence, exclusion of non-Muslim Pakistani citizen's evidence and same requirements to prove zina and zina bil jabr. None of these critical issues has been addressed in the bill.
Similarly, he said an amendment has been made in the Blasphemy Law so that no police officer below the rank of a superintendent shall investigate the offence against any person alleged to have been committed by him under Section 295(C).This fails to take into account several other shortcomings in the Blasphemy Law.
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