ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), headed by Chief Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, will announce its judgement on a set of identical petitions challenging the Women’s Protection Act 2006 today (Wednesday). Earlier on November 23, the same bench, also comprising Justice Afzaal Haider and Justice Shahzado Sheikh, had reserved the judgement.
Various provisions of the Women’s Protection Act 2006 and the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) had been challenged in the FSC for being repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. After examining these provisions in the light of the holy Quran and the Sunnah and hearing the views of acclaimed clerics of the country, the court had reserved the judgement. Four identical petitions challenging the law were filed before the FSC between 2007 and 2010. The petitioners argued that the law in question was against the constitution, which stated that “Islam will be the state religion,” and no laws will be passed which were repugnant to the Quran and the Sunnah. The petitioners, Muhammad Akhtar, Abdul Latif Sufi, Mian Abdul Razzaq Aamir and Aslam Ghuman, contented that clauses 365-B, 367-A, and 371-A and B, 493-A and 496-A, inserted in the PPC through the 2006 act were against Islamic law, therefore, they should be removed from the PPC while the Hudood Ordinance be restored.
The matter had been under discussion before the FSC for several months. During the proceedings, the FSC also examined laws pertaining to adultery and Qazf (levelling allegations of zina without evidence) commonly known as the Hudood Ordinance of 1979, promulgated during former president General Ziaul Haq’s regime. Clause 365-B talks about kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman, compelling her for marriage, 367-A mentions kidnapping or abducting in order to subject a person to unlawful lust, 371-A mentions selling and buying of a person for the purposes of prostitution, 493-A describes cohabitation where a man deceitfully induces belief of lawful marriage and 496-A highlights enticing or taking away or detaining a woman with criminal intent.
Legal experts say under the Protection of Women Act, 2006, only the Sessions Court (on a complaint) may take cognizance of such cases. The offence has been made bailable so that the accused is not jailed during trial.
The act also restricted the police from detaining people suspected of having extramarital sex unless directed so by the Sessions Court. Such directions could not be issued except either to compel attendance in court or in the event of a conviction. After the amendments, adultery and non-marital consensual sex is still an offence but now judges would be allowed to try rape cases in criminal rather than Islamic courts.
