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Hudood changes a test for Musharraf

Nirupama Subramanian

Opposition, sections in ruling party against amendments

ISLAMABAD: An embattled government is trying to push through the controversial Protection of Women Bill 2006 that seeks to amend the harsh 1979 Hudood Ordinances in the face of determination by a section of the Opposition not to allow it to go through, and divisions over it within the ruling party.

The Bill is important to President Pervez Musharraf to prove his credentials as a champion of enlightened Islam and women's rights, but it falls far short of what women's groups, human rights activists and jurists want - a total repeal.

The Bill seeks to bring rape under the purview of the Pakistan Penal Code, and four witnesses would no longer be required to prove the complaint. Under the Hudood Ordinances, a woman unable to produce four witnesses to her rape was deemed to have confessed to adultery, and imprisoned for the offence. The bill also seeks to make adultery a bailable offence.

But even this halfway house has proved unpopular with sections of the Opposition, and divided the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid), while a ruling coalition ally is pressing the Government to go ahead with it.

Threat to quit seats

The National Assembly will take up the Bill for debate and vote on Monday, and Gen. Musharraf has called a Senate session on Tuesday.

Observers say the aim is to push through the Bill as early as possible.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six religious political parties is stiffly opposed to the Bill as a virtual endorsement of adultery, and has threatened dire consequences.

Qazi Hussain, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest group in the MMA, said in Lahore on Saturday "the people of Pakistan would not allow army generals to change Pakistan's Islamic culture." The largest Opposition group in Parliament, the MMA has threatened to quit its seats in the National Assembly, and the ruling coalition in Balochistan if the Bill is enacted in its present form.

When the Government introduced the Bill last month, MMA parliamentarians tore up copies in the House and walked out. The Government then set up a special select committee that could decide if the Bill violated any provisions of Islam, which approved the Bill last week.

Last week, the Government made a renewed bid to placate the MMA, by saying it would consult ulema about the provisions of the Bill, but the MMA wants the Government to recast the Bill.

Within the ruling party too, there is disquiet about the Bill, and many parliamentarians and some Ministers are reported to have expressed their reservations about it.

But the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a partner of the ruling coalition, which supports the amendments and has been a vocal crusader against the Hudood laws, said it would reconsider backing the Bill if it is watered down any more.

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