PRESIDENT CALLS FOR LAW TO END "HONOUR KILLINGS"

May 15, 2004 – (IRIN) Rights groups have reacted positively to president Pervez Musharraf's call to create a law banning honour killings and an acknowledgement that the Hudood Ordinances and the blasphemy law need to be scrutinised to prevent any further misuse. In his address to a human rights convention in Islamabad, Musharraf also announced the formation of an independent National Commission for Human Rights.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), over 600 women were killed in the name of honour across Pakistan in 2003, although activists and others admit that actual figures might be much higher because such cases often go unreported.

Women's groups, however, feel that as far as the Hudood Ordinances and the blasphemy law are concerned there has been enough discussion and that it is now time to repeal these laws. The Hudood Ordinances were promulgated in 1979 by Haq as part of an "Islamisation" programme.

According to the Hudood laws, under which rape cases are registered, a rape victim who is unable to prove her case risks being accused of adultery. These laws make consensual sex outside marriage an offence, while marital rape and raping a child-bride are no longer offences. In addition to adultery and fornication (Zina) offences, the Hudood Ordinances deal with offences related to theft, alcohol and drug consumption, and false accusations in court (Qazf). Their fifth component is the Whipping Ordinance, which prescribes hadd punishments such as up to 100 lashes or stoning to death.

"These laws have been a disgrace since they were introduced," says Majida Rizvi, a former Supreme Court judge and head of the National Commission on the Status of Women. The commission is a government council of religious scholars, government officials and legal experts set up by Musharraf in 2000 to examine laws pertaining to women's rights. The commission voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Hudood in a mid-2003 report.

Since then, Musharraf has appeared reluctant to repeal the Hudood for fear of further antagonizing his political ties to religious clerics and their supporters. Musharraf angered these clerics by siding fully with the U.S. war on terror, banning militant groups and seeking to reform the nation's 13,000 religious seminaries.

From: http://www.aviva.org/asia.htm