Former Senator Farhatullah Babar has called for a review of the Qisas and Diyat law so that pardon could be granted only after court conviction and not before it. He said this while speaking at a national consultation organized by an NGO Blue Veins on gaining support for pro-women policies and legislation at a local hotel in Islamabad on Thursday.
"Granting pardon before court conviction had only encouraged honor killings as the murderer, often a close relative of the victim is promptly pardoned by another close relative," he said. Time has come for drawing up a broad-based Charter of Women Rights overseeing the implementation of Pakistan's obligations under international covenants like Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), he said.
Farhatullah Babar said that unfortunately the declarations by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) often militate against women. The CII, he said, rejected a draft bill for homes for the elderly, rejected the Women Protection Bill, 2006 and in March 2014 declared laws forbidding child marriage against Islam. It also declared DNA tests unacceptable as primary evidence in rape cases even ignoring safeguards provided by the Supreme Court in its verdict.
The Council, he said, pronounced that seeking permission of first wife for second marriage was not Islamic. Not long ago it first approved a draft resolution on preventing misuse of blasphemy law but later, faced with pressure, went back on it. In 1978 it has recommended inscribing of Kalima Tayyaba and Allah-o-Akbar on national flag to motivate people for Jihad, he said.