Speakers of a seminar at Punjab University Law College have said that the Punjab protection of women against violence act was neither un-Islamic and nor unconstitutional and presented the various verses from the Quran and Sunnah and articles from the constitution to substantiate their legal and constitutional point of view.
The experts said that the spirit of Islam must be looked and traditions of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) must be followed. The discussion was headed by Principal Law College Dr Shazia Qureshi on the bill which also discussed its implications in the province and shortcomings in the act.
The speakers said this was a positive step that had been taken to respond to the issues that disproportionately affected women. They said that the act was more specific and had a wider scope in nature and was intended to be applied with greater force. They said the act was intended to reconcile the disputes rather than ending up in divorces.
Giving recommendations, they said section 2 (e), (Definitions), “dependent child” means a male child who is below the age of twelve years of age and includes any adopted, step or foster child; It is suggested that female child should also be covered under the definition of dependent child.
The speakers said section 2 (r) (Definitions) “Psychological abuse/Violence” should be eliminated. They said as psychological aspect varies from case to case and it becomes difficult to prove and measure this violence since there can be no fixed scale to determine it.
Also the domestic, sexual, economic abuses already covered psychological aspect, they said, adding that since this law covered both civil and criminal domain, a fine line needed to get drawn for such hybrid structure created under this act.
