Islamabad: Amid protests from Opposition Islamist parties, President Pervez Musharraf on Friday signed the Bill amending a controversial rape law that requires the victim to produce four male witnesses to the crime.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sher Afghan Niazi sad that Musharraf signed the Protection of Women Bill, 2006 making it a law as it was already approved by the National Assembly and Senate last month.
Musharraf had planned to sign the Bill that ammends the Hudood Ordianance on December 5 at a women's convention planned to be held here by ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
But he changed his mind and signed it on Friday scorching rumours that his confidants negotiated a compromise with the Islamist alliance Muthahid a Majlis Amal,(MMA), which has terming it un-islamic and held protest rallies.
The announcement about signing of the Bill was made after members of state-funded Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) called on Musharraf on Thursday night and expressed their support for the Bill, which they said did not violate injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah, an official statement said.
Under the new law, approved last week by Parliament, judges can choose whether a rape case should be tried in a criminal court - where the four-witness rule would not apply - or under the old Islamic laws. The new amendment also drops the death penalty for sex outside of marriage.
Musharraf told CII members the government cannot imagine enacting legislation contrary to the Quran and Sunnah. "The Women's Protection Bill will provide relief to women and the government will continue enacting laws which provide them more protection," he said adding that the bill would ease discrimination against women.
The Opposition MMA and an Islamic organisation Rabitatul Madaris, (RM) which runs hundreds of madrasas in the country had opposed the Hudood laws and issued a decree against the Musharraf government saying parliament should be dissolved.
The MMA, especially the Jamat-I-Islami held protests against the bill during the Friday prayers today all across the country and some of its leaders were detained after the the rally which they planned to hold in Lahore was banned.
Meanwhile, a moderate Islamist member of CII, Javed Ahmed Ghamadi who resigned from CII saying that the bill was too mild said, "I still have strong reservations, but I remained silent since I have already registered my protest by submitting my resignation to the CII chairman," he was quoted by the Daily Times as saying. The government did not accept his resignation.
Ghamadi said the only good things about the bill was that it established the supremacy of parliament, and stopped the police from arresting women on charges of adultery."Otherwise, the bill is no different to the Hudood Ordinances brought in by Zia which were denounced by women and human rights groups as the most draconian," he said.
Ghamadi said the bill had introduced two types of adultery one that required the testimony of two witnesses and the other of four witnesses. This was " absurd" and conflicted with Islamic injunctions.
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