The passage of Women Protection Bill by the National Assembly has empowered the women and given them their due rights in the society as clause of Zina and its punishment in Hadood Ordinance was not in conformity with the Islamic injunctions, said President Pervez Musharraf while addressing the nation here on Wednesday.
He congratulated the nation, National Assembly PML and its leaders for working day and night for the passage of this bill. He also paid tributes to coalition partners of the government like MQM, PPP(S) and Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians for supporting the bill.
Giving his views on Hadood Ordinance, he said that it includes five major clauses that is Zina, Qazaf, prohibition, Property and Lashing, but we have only made changes in the first law that is Zina, which was directly and indirectly affecting our mothers, daughters and sisters.
He said the law was poorly tailored to usurp women rights which is against the Islamic injunctions, but some elements in Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) were trying to create the impression that the bill is in violation of Quran and Sunnah. He said after coming into power I studied this law and felt sorry about the womenfolk of this country as they were being treated inhumanly. I pledged to change this law as my moral and human duty.
He explained in detail the modification made in the law and explained both Zina-bil-Jabar (rape) and Zina-bil-raza (adultery).
In the first case when a woman goes to the police station to report about the rape, she was asked to produce four witnesses and on not doing so she had been taken into custody and jailed according to the prevailing law. This was irrational approach and we have to rectify it to give the women of this country some dignity, which they deserved. Therefore, we have made necessary changes in this law.
In the second case that is adultery the woman is again the victim and man take the escape route, he added.
The President said after consultation with legal experts, we have inserted Article 496 (b) in Pakistan Penal Code to punish the real culprit and for this purpose Section 10 of the Tazeer has been removed.
Now on reporting the rape case women will not be arrested but court will decide after the production of two witnesses for the case, however, in case of false acquisition the person who lodged the complaint have to undergo five-year imprisonment.
He said that extremist and fundamentalists are creating misperception and distorting the law and giving it the colour as if the government is promoting vulgarity in the society. On the contrary we have protected the rights of women through article 496(b) based on rational thinking.
"I hope the Senate will also pass this bill within a few days to implement it in the society without any delay," he expected.
He said that weak and poor should be protected at all cost. This is what Islam is all about.
He said another bill on honour killing, marriages with Quran, vani, watta satta, talak and inheritance will be presented in the National Assembly for empowerment of women soon.
The President said there were two sets of people to whom we have to deal with, one the religious extremists and other liberals. The first wanted the Hadood Ordinance intact while the other wanted to repeal it completely. We had to develop consensus for which we talk to both the parties and took them on board. The President congratulated Council of Islamic Ideology for guiding the government in making the necessary changes in the bill.
While winding up his speech the President said the time has come for progressive people to stand up and show extremists that they are no more needed. For this he urged the nation to vote for progressive forces and reject extremists elements in the next election. He hoped that the nation would support the moderates, which constitute the large majority of population in the next election.
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