Women in detention at Karachi's main prison - more than 6,000 may be freed under a change in the law |
ISLAMABAD, 10 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - Women prisoners in Pakistan
freed under an amendment to a controversial Islamic law began to be released
over the weekend.
President General Pervez Musharraf amended the law,
which has been on the statute book since 1979, on Friday. The change means women
convicted of adultery or sex outside marriage can be released on bail rather
than having to serve prison sentences.
The long-awaited amendment to the
Hudood Ordinance would affect thousands of female prisoners, Pakistan’s Minister
for Women’s Affairs, Sumaira Malik, told journalists in the capital,
Islamabad.
“President Musharraf has taken a bold decision to protect the
rights of women and save them from the misuse of Islamic laws,” Malik said. More
than 1,300 women left a number of penal institutions on Saturday as a result of
the change in the law.
Under the Hudood Ordinance - passed under the
military dictatorship of the late General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq - women could be
sentenced to death if found guilty of having sex outside marriage. The ordinance
did not allow for women to be released on bail and specified a mandatory prison
sentence for such offences.
Currently some 6,500 women are incarcerated
in Pakistan awaiting trial on Hudood Ordinance charges, which critics say are
blatantly discriminatory against women.
The government said it would
provide legal and financial assistance to help rehabilitate those women released
as a consequence of the changes.
Musharraf put his signature to the
legal amendment during a meeting of female parliamentarians that he
chaired.
During Friday’s meeting, Musharraf also indicated the
government’s intention to scrap the Hudood Ordinance completely, according to
those in attendance.
“The government will undo all those un-Islamic and
inhuman laws enacted in the name of religion, Malik added.
The Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) welcomed the move, but in a statement
released on Monday, said the amendment did nothing to address the systemic flaws
in the country's legal system.
“HRCP reiterates its stance that there is
a need to repeal laws, particularly the Hudood Ordinances, which result in
hundreds of women being unjustly jailed each year. The widespread abuse of power
by police and the courts is also an issue that needs to be urgently
addressed.
Ever since its promulgation, the Hudood Ordinance has been a
source of controversy between liberals and conservatives in Pakistan. While
religious hardliners like political party Jamaat-e-Islami are committed to
protecting what they perceive as being divine rules, many civil society
organisations and womens’s organisations have struggled to pressure successive
governments to repeal them.
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