The Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted for regular hearing an appeal against the Federal Shariat Court’s (FSC) December 21, 2010 verdict that declared some sections of the Women Protection Act 2006 violated Islamic Shariah, and issued notice to the attorney general for May 3. The bench consisting of Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Dr Fida Muhammad Khan and Justice Dr Muhammad Al-Ghazali was hearing two petitions filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association’s executive member Aslam Ghuman and the Women Action Forum.
At the outset of hearing, petitioner Aslam Ghuman argued that the only objective of the FSC was to examine and determine whether laws of the country were in consonance with the Shariah. He said he had serious reservations over the FSC verdict on WPA 2006, as the FSC did not touch those sections of the act that he had challenged before it (FSC). He called the FSC verdict illegal, stating that it had no authority to determine its jurisdiction. “Under Article 199, it is the power of high court to declare the validation of laws,” he added.
Meanwhile, the court also took up another appeal filed by the Women Action Forum against the FSC decision on WPA 2006 and issued notices to Aslam Ghuman to assist it for examining the maintainability of the application, as the applicant had not filed the petition in the FSC on WPA, 2006. The court later adjourned proceedings until May 3. The FSC had declared that several sections of the Women Protection Act 2006 violated the Islamic Shariah. It said sections 11, 25, 28 and 29 were contradictory to the article 203DD of the constitution, as these provisions annulled the overriding effect of Hudood Ordinance 1979. The court also had declared section 25 of the Anti Terrorism Act 1997 against Article 203DD of the constitution.
