WUNRN
Pakistan
- Higher Penalty for Women’s Harassment Approved
By
Raja Asghar
05 November 2009
The
draft by women activists, was introduced in the house early this year by then
information minister Sherry Rehman, who won special plaudits from both sides of
the house during speeches after the bill. – Photo by APP.
The
Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, which must be passed by the Senate as well to
become law, amends both the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal
Procedure, increasing the punishment for the crime to up to three years in
prison and a fine of up to Rs500,000 from up to one year and unspecified fine already
provided in the PPC for a vague ‘insult (to) the modesty of a woman’.
The
draft, fruit of a campaign by women activists, was introduced in the house
early this year by then information minister Sherry Rehman, who won special
plaudits from both sides of the house during speeches after the bill -- already
approved by a 16-member standing committee on law with Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gilani cited as its minister-in-charge -- was passed without a debate.
However,
some members from the both treasury and opposition benches voiced fears about
the possibility of misuse of the new law, particularly in rural areas to settle
scores -- though some others dismissed such concerns -- and called for an
effective implementation, possibly with amendments in other relevant law and
rules governing police.
The
bill is the second passed by the present 19-month-old lower in three months,
the first being a private bill adopted by it in early August -- and later by
the Senate -- to provide for monetary and other relief to sufferers of domestic
like women, children and other vulnerable persons such as the elderly and
domestic servants.
It
will be followed by another pro-women bill, designed to make provisions for
their protection against harassment at workplaces, which was put on the agenda
of the house on Monday but was put off because of an opposition walkout to
protest against the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance of former
military ruler Pervez Musharraf that the government later decided not to bring
for approval.
‘Harassment
is one of the most common issues faced by the women of
It
said this issue alone inhibited most women to move out of their houses for
education, availing medical facilities and earning a livelihood.
The
statement said that although the PPC already had some sections that ‘attempt to
address sexual harassment to a certain extent, (their) the terminology is
vague’ and open to interpretation.
It
said the new amendment was ‘in the same spirit’ as of the PPC’s original
section 509 and other relevant clauses providing protection to women but that
it ‘elaborates and specifies what constitutes harassment of women in public,
private and workplaces’.
‘This
amendment will not only make public and work environment safer for women but
will open up the path for more women to pursue livelihood with dignity,’ the
statement said. ‘It will reduce poverty as more and more women will get the
courage to enter the job market.’
The
existing brief section 509 of the PPC on the subject of ‘word, gesture or act
intended to insult the modesty of a woman’, defines the culprit as one
‘intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound
or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be
heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen, by such woman or intrudes
upon the privacy of such woman’.
The
proposed new section 509 with modified title of ‘insulting modesty or causing
sexual harassment’, additionally defines the culprit as one who conducts sexual
advances, or demands sexual favours or uses verbal or non-verbal communication
or physical conduct of a sexual nature which intends to annoy, insult,
intimidate or threaten the other person or commits such acts at the premises of
workplace, or makes submission to such conduct either explicitly or implicitly
a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or makes submission to or
rejection of such conduct by an individual a basis for employment decision
affecting such individual, or retaliates because of rejection of such
behaviour, or conducts such behaviour with the intention of unreasonably interfering
with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or
offensive working environment.
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