Pakistan circa 2006

THE FIERCE debate that has been raging in Pakistan regarding the controversial Hudood Ordinance, which criminalises sex outside marriage, has finally led to the Pakistani cabinet approving draft amendments to the Ordinance. Promulgated in 1979, the Ordinance espouses a literal interpretation of the Sharia law pertaining to zina (adultery). Other than the fact that it gives the State the right to interfere in what is essentially a personal matter, it takes a highly skewed view of rape (zina bil jabr) as a form of adultery. A rape victim has to present four male witnesses to testify in order to prove her charges. If unable to do so – which has, not surprisingly, been the experience in most cases – she becomes liable to the charge of adultery because she has admitted to a sexual act outside of marriage. Since the punishment for adultery is lesser than for rape, the accused may admit to adultery, thereby implicating the victim as well. The law has also been used by parents to punish children for marrying against their wishes. The result has been that of the 7,000 women lodged in Pakistani jails, nearly 88 per cent are accused of crimes under the Hudood Ordinance. Although most are eventually acquitted, this is not before they have spent five years on average in prison.
The proposed amendment seeks to take away the prerogative of the police to register an FIR in a case of zina, and makes failure to prove zina itself liable for prosecution. It also provides for divorce in case a woman has been wrongfully accused by her husband of adultery. In addition, it puts rape squarely under the Pakistan Penal Code, admits conventional forms of evidence while doing away with the requirement of four male witnesses, and also treats the marriage of a girl under the age of 16 as rape. However, this falls short of the demand by moderate elements and rights activists that the Ordinance be scrapped altogether. Whether even these limited amendments will be passed by Parliament is highly suspect – commissions to study the Hudood Ordinance were set up under the Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif governments, but neither government followed through with the recommendations.
Gen Musharraf claims to be leading Pakistan on the path of “enlightened moderation”, a claim that won him a pat on the back from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the country. Although he has to play a delicate balancing act to accommodate various moderate and radical voices in his own government, he would do his country a big service by espousing a progressive, moderate version of Islam. Perhaps the amendment will be a test case.