‘‘We consider it a step in the right direction,” said WAR project coordinator and working committee member, Sarah Zaman, in a press release issued Friday.

“WAR has been fighting for the rights of women and children who are subjected to rape and other forms of sexual abuse, since 1989. In our 17 years of experience in dealing with survivors of sexual abuse, we have consistently demanded the complete repeal of the Hudood Ordinances. However, the Women Protection Bill contains some provisions we believe would bring about positives changes in handling and deciding of cases of rape specifically,” Zaman said.

“WAR approves of the fact that under the new law, rape cases cannot be converted to Zina cases. It is of great relief that creation of trumped up charges of Zina has been made virtually impossible and no woman will be sent to jail on charges of Zina prior to conviction. WAR especially approves of the proposed procedural changes in the registration of rape complaints,” she said. “ It not only takes cognizance of a rape survivor’s complaint but also eliminates the role of police, creating a safeguard against police corruption, both in terms of extracting money from the survivors and employing delay tactics in registering cases of rape. Also of positive consequence is declaring sex with a girl under age 16 to be statutory rape, whether the act is done with or without a girl’s consent.”

However, Zaman explained, although WAR welcomes the new set of laws keeping cognizance of its flaws, we still demand the repeal of the Hudood Ordinances. “We are extremely dissatisfied over political parties from both the liberal and religious divide for abusing the issue of women’s right to extract political mileage over the other. However, though sensible laws are the first step towards redressing human rights abuses, the hangover the now crumbling Hudood Ordinance era would make the implementation of these new laws perhaps rather tricky. The age-old biases against women that the judiciary developed by virtue of implementing skewed laws for 27 years would be difficult to overcome in just a matter of a few months. Perhaps the government should seek to sensitize the judiciary and keep a close look on how these laws would be implemented in the following years to come,” Zaman concluded.

In a press release issued here on Friday, it said the WAR expects that under the new law rape cases would no more be dealt under the Zina cases.

“It is of a great relief that trumped up charges of Zina has been made virtually impossible and no woman would be sent to jail prior to conviction,” it said.

About approving of proposed procedural changes in the registration of rape complaints, it said: “It not only would take cognisance of a rape victim’s complaint but also eliminates the role of the police.

“The WAR demands complete repeal of Hudood Ordinances, for it fears the crumbling among political parties over the ordinance would make the implementation of these new laws perhaps rather tricky,” the press release added.

The War Against Rape (WAR) has demanded that an FIR against the kidnapping of three women in Kotri district be registered and all those involved in the abduction of women be arrested, tried and punished according to law.

In a statement, the WAR said though the kidnappers were detained by the police, they had been released on the personal surety of an influential landlord of the Chandio tribe.

It also criticized the unsympathetic attitude of the police towards victims who are being pressed to settle the issue through a jirga and not to register a case (FIR) against the kidnappers.

The WAR said three women were kidnapped by three men from Khuda Ki Basti near Jamshoro in Kotri some three months back.

A bunch of colourful balloons rose in the air on Faiz’s potent lines raging loud in Iqbal Bano’s voice, “Sub taaj giraey jayen ge, sub takht uchhaley jaayen ge…hum dekhen ge…”

WAF was born when the infamous Hudood ordinances became law during Gen Zia’s martial law regime. The notorious ruling of public flogging in the Fehmida Allah Bakhsh case brought a number of women’s NGOs – mainly Shirkat Gah and Aurat Foundation – together in support of Fehmida and her husband who were charged as criminals under the Hudood law for the simple act of marrying against their family’s wishes. WAR (War against Rape) eventually became its offshoot to deal with zina and rape abuses that soon began piling up against women by men who wanted to avenge their petty feuds.

In her speech, Anis Haroon, one of the founding members of WAF, made a pertinent statement by pointing out that when WAF was founded in 1981, it was an era when women were being singled out for all kinds of revenge and had multiple issues at home and in professional arenas to deal with. But WAF had thought that with time things would sort out and its presence would not be needed after 10 or so years. It is ironic that even after 25 years and many changes in governments, women’s issues have still not settled and we are still struggling to amend the same black laws that had first abused Pakistan’s justice system by a military dictator.

The silver jubilee celebrations of WAF at the Karachi Press Club was a colourful affair of skits, song and dance. Particularly young Sohai’s classical dance, who gracefully twirled to the beat of the tabla and enthralled the audience.

Women representatives from the fisher-folk community also aired their grievances against the government, wicho has not given them due legal cover to earn their living and many of their relatives remain missing – assumed dead – for years when they are captured by the Indian forces when accidentally straying into alien waters.

The programme ended with a folk song by the Sindhiani community. It was joined in by the guests and participants. And again to Faiz’s immortal lines: `Utthey ga Annal Haq ka naara, jo mein bhi hoon aur tum bhi ho, aur raaj karey gi khalq-i- khuda, jo mein bhi hoon aur tum bhi ho.

Proclaiming himself a champion of women’s rights and in response to the chastisement that has been heaped on him by human rights activists and feminists, General Pervez Musharraf belatedly moved in August to introduce amendments in the Hudood Ordinances.

Earlier, he had promulgated an ordinance — that was widely hailed — providing for the release of all women jailed on charges under the Hudood laws. Read full Article...

In a statement issued here on Thursday the NGO, War Against Rape (WAR), condemned the gang rape of a women in Baghbanpura, Multan and demanded that all the accused, including a CIA official, be arrested and tried according to law.

It said that the police had arrested only one of the accused while four others had not been arrested so far and they were extending threats to the victim.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, members of civil society, lawyers and human rights activists demanded that the bill be repealed altogether instead of complying with MMA’s proposal of amending three points in the re-drafted bill. Expressing her discontent and anger, Anis Haroon, resident director of the Aurat Foundation, said that the WAF is outraged by the political expediency shown by the government in this matter. Read full story...

The demand was made at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club by the Justice (retd) Shaiq Usmani, Anis Haroon, Danish Zuberi, Nuzhat Kidwai and Sarah Zaman who were representing various NGOs, including Women Action Forum, War Against Rape etc.

They said though nothing good had come out of the present exercise of doing amendments to the Hudood Ordinances, one good thing had emerged that the government and the religious parties by agreeing to make the amendments have accepted that the Hudood Ordinances were man-made laws and could be amended.

They said the original amendments to the Hudood Ordinances suggested by the government and recommendations made by the National Assembly’s Select Committee – though did not totally met their demand of repealing of the Hudood ordinances -- did provide some relief to women but then the government succumbed to pressure of religious groups and gave in to their demands.

They said if amendments suggested by religious parties – Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal – were included in the law, it would become more dangerous for women and they would be more vulnerable to victimization. They said the amendments suggested by the MMA were not according to Quran and Sunnah.

They said that MMA had suggested that the Qazaf punishment should not be given automatically if the accuser did not produce four witnesses. If the accuser fails to produce four witnesses to Zina, the accuser should be punished under Qazaf immediately without making a fresh case.

They said that the MMA’s demand that adultery be tried under the Hudood Ordinances as well as PPC was not fair.

They said that the move to throw the proposed Women’s Protection Bill in limbo indefinitely in order to appease the MMA was nothing but the political expediency on the part of the government as it has to negotiate with the MMA on various other issues also.

They said that their the Gen Zia’s Hudood ordinances had many flaws and making amendments to it would further complicate them more and women would be victimized more, so it was better to repeal the Hudood Ordinances.

They said the women’s rights were not negotiable, so they would continue to struggle against the discriminatory laws.

They were speaking at a forum organised jointly by the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) and the Aurat Foundation here on Wednesday.

They said that the government intended to introduce cosmetic amendments to the Hudood Ordinance and Islamic laws but such initiatives were not acceptable to the civil society that had struggled for more than 27 years to get these discriminatory laws repealed.

They said that the government had signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and was bound to modify all local laws in conformity with its international commitments, but little work had been done in this regard so far.

They observed that people did not dare to speak against the Hudood laws at the time they were promulgated because they had assumed that they were in accordance with Islam. However, owing to the long struggle waged by the civil society over a couple of decades now, not only people had started discussing the issue without any fear, but the government had also been forced to review the laws.

Presiding over the forum, NCSW chief Arfa Zehra Sayeda said that nobody could oppose the ‘Hudood Allah’ as these had been prescribed to ensure justice and equality in society. But whatever fabricated by human beings and promulgated in the name of Hudood laws was not in conformity with Islam and could be changed and repealed like other laws if these were found discriminatory against any section of society, particularly women.

She said that the NCSW had already sent its recommendations to the government and now it was latter’s turn to act.

Justice Javed Iqbal said that Islam had been exploited by vested interests to mislead masses and achieve their goals, and the Hudood laws were one such example which had been promulgated by a dictator to prolong his rule. He called for immediate repeal of the laws.

He was of the view that the present government also was amending these laws just to create and spread the impression globally that it believed in ‘enlightened moderation’.

Justice Iqbal suggested a review of the entire judicial system, and said that judges, besides holding trials, be empowered to conduct investigation into the cases in hand to ascertain facts before convicting someone.

Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid said that the Hudood laws were contrary to Islamic teachings and the Constitution both of which guaranteed gender equality in every field.

He also suggested that a case of zina should not be registered unless the complainant brought four witnesses and if the four witnesses were not produced, then not only the case should not be registered but the complainant be awarded 80 lashes for making a false accusation.

Justice (r) Shaiq Usmani pin-pointed discrepancies in Hudood laws, and indicated that under these laws, adultery and rape were similar crimes. He observed that it was up to the police whether to register a case under PPC or the Hudood laws. This discretion, he said, made police to exploit the accused. He was of the view that these laws were full of flaws and if amendments were made to them, these laws would complicate the situation further.

A religious leader, Dr Tufail Hashmi, said that only four clauses of the Hudood Ordinance were in conformity with Islam while the rest 97 were in conflict with Islamic teachings. He pointed out that nobody had been punished under the Qazef clauses of the Hudood Ordinance, under which evidence of a woman was not acceptable.

Iqbal Haider of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan stressed on creating awareness of Hudood laws in masses, especially of the rural areas as the government would listen only when a popular movement was launched to force it to move. The civil society alone would not be able to achieve the goal of getting Hudood laws repealed, he added.

He apprehended that the recent presidential ordinance on release of women on bail could also be misused by unscrupulous elements who might try to use women for their wrongdoings and get them released on bail easily.

PPP MNA Sherry Rehman said that she had submitted bills long ago for the repeal of the Hudood and other laws discriminatory against women but the same had not yet been taken up in the parliament.

MPA Shama Mithani of PPP, Marium Palijo of Sindhiyani Tehrik, Rasheeda Patel of the Pakistan Women Lawyers Association, Shaista Zaidi of Bazm-i-Amna, Khalida Qadri of War Against Rape, Zahid Farooq of the Urban Resource Centre, Danish Zuberi, Beena Khan, Hassan Pathan and Nuzhat Shirin were among others who spoke at the forum.

Speaking at the ‘Consultation with the Parliamentarians on Domestic Violence’ organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, they said that occurrence of domestic violence was so common that many people did not even know that it was a crime.

They said various other countries in the region including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Malaysia, and India had specific laws for dealing with the issue, and it was high time that specific laws were formulated here as well so that the rights of Pakistani women could be safeguarded as well.

They stressed that a widespread awareness campaign on the issue should be launched so that a larger and ignorant section of society could become aware. And also so that victims knew their rights and the culprits were aware that they were committing a crime for which they could be prosecuted and sentenced.

Parliamentarians Sherry Rehman, Haider Rizvi, Shazia Marri, Kulsoom Nizamani, Bilqees Mukhtar, Sharafunnisa Leghari, Humaira Alwani, Hameedullah Khan, Rajvair Singh Sodho, Shama Mithani, and Zohra Yusuf, Iqbal Haider, Danish Zuberi and others also spoke.

Some speakers suggested that awareness sessions for parliamentarians should be organized so they could understand the issue in a better way and subsequently play their part to solve the issue.

Pointing out that women after being victimized went to the police and later to the judiciary, they suggested that special training sessions should be organized for officials belonging to the police and judiciary so that they developed a sympathetic attitude when women victims approached them for their grievances.

Referring to the large number of women in Parliament, they suggested that all women members should rise above party politics and take a joint stand whenever an issue relating to women was being discussed or decided in the House.

They also suggested that women parliamentarians should not be thinking of scoring a point while raising an issue or a bill on women issues. They should rather focus on and support the issue regardless of the fact who had raised it.

Some speakers, however, regretted that women members were not being given due opportunity to function in the male dominated parliament owing to which they were unable to play their due role in the house.

Highlighting the government’s discriminatory attitude against women victims of violence, they said the government had put the names of a gang rape victim and a women victim of acid attack on the ECL while the culprits had not yet been punished sternly.

They also demanded that all laws that were discriminatory towards any section of society, including women, should be abolished and women-friendly legislation should be formulated.

Some parliamentarians belonging to the Opposition said though they had submitted private bills on women issues, the government was using administrative methods for delaying a discussion.