INTRODUCTION

The Hudood Ordinance was a law in Pakistan that was enacted in 1979
as part of then military ruler Zia's Islamization process, and
replaced/revised in 2006 by the Women's Protection Bill.

The Hudood Law was intended to implement Islamic Shari'a law, by

enforcing punishments mentioned in the Quran and sunnah for Zina
(extramarital sex), Qazf (false accusation of zina), Offence Against
Property (theft), and Prohibition (the drinking of alcohol).

The ordinance has been criticized as leading to "hundreds of incidents

where a woman subjected to rape, or even gang rape, was eventually
accused of Zina" and incarcerated, and defended as punishment ordained
by God and victim of "extremely unjust propaganda".

LAW CODE

For married Muslims, the maximum punishment for zina is death by

stoning, or for unmarried couples or non-Muslims, 100 lashes In practice,
only imprisonment has ever been enforced, because the maximum
punishments require four eyewitnesses or above. The maximum
punishments for drinking alcohol is 80 lashes. Theft carries a maximum
punishment of amputation of the right hand.

CONTROVERSY

The ordinance is mostly criticized for equiparating the crime of zina

(adultery) and zina bil-jabr (rape). As for the zina, a woman alleging rape
is required to provide four adult male eye-witnesses. Actually, in many
cases the failure to find such proof of the rape places the woman at risk of
prosecution for zina. Moreover, to prove rape the female victim has to
admit that sexual intercourse had taken place. If the alleged offender,
however, is acquitted for want of further evidence the woman now faces
charges for either adultery, if she is married, or for fornication, if she is not
married. According to a report by the National Commission on Status of
Women(NCSW) "an estimated 80% of women" in jail in 2003 were there as
because "they had failed to prove rape charges and were consequently
convicted of adultery."

Stories of great personal suffering by women who claimed to have been

raped appeared in the press in the years following the passing of the
Hudood ordinances. The case of Safia Bibi is one of this: a blind girl victim
of a rape who was prosecuted for the crime of zina because of her
illeggittimate pregnancy, while the rapist was acquitted. The case
appealed many protests from Pakistani activist and lawyer and from the
international organizations. The appeal sentence of the Federal Shariat
Court let claired the girl of the accusation of zina.

The evidence of guilt was there for all to see: a newborn baby in the arms
of its mother, a village woman named Zafran Bibi. Her crime: she had
been raped. Her sentence: death by stoning. Now Ms. Zafran Bibi, who is
about 26, is in solitary confinement in a death-row cell.

Thumping a fat red statute book, the white-bearded judge who convicted
her, Anwar Ali Khan, said he had simply followed the letter of the Koran-
based law, known as hudood, that mandates punishments.

"The illegitimate child is not disowned by her and therefore is proof of

zina," he said, referring to laws that forbid any sexual contact outside
marriage. Furthermore, he said, in accusing her brother-in-law of raping
her, Ms. Zafran had confessed to her crime.

However, Mufti Taqi Usmani, an instrumental figure in making the law, has
stated

If anyone says that she was punished because of Qazaf (false accusation
of rape) then Qazaf Ordinance, Clause no. 3, Exemption no. 2 clearly
states that if someone approaches the legal authorities with a rape
complaint, she cannot be punished in case she is unable to present 4
witnesses. No court of law can be in its right mind to award such a
punishment.

A number of international and Pakistani human rights organizations still

campaign for the law's repeal. Some argue that it goes beyond what is
required by Sharia. They are opposed by conservative religious parties,
who accuse them of departing from Islamic values. The governments of
Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif both set up commissions to investigate
the Hudood Ordinance. Both commissions recommended amending
certain aspects of the law, but neither government followed through.

REVISION OF ORDINANCE

In 2006, then President Pervez Musharraf again proposed reform of the

Ordinance. On November 15, 2006, the Women's Protection Bill was
passed in the National Assembly, allowing rape to be prosecutable under
civil law. The bill was ratified by the Senate on 23 November 2006, and
became law after President Musharraf signed it on 1 December 2006.

The reforms have come under considerable opposition from Islamist

groups in Pakistan, who insist that law should stay in Sharia form. Other
legal experts have claimed that the original law was not so unbalanced as
its opponents claimed, or that the reforms will be impossible to enforce.

Human rights groups and activists in Pakistan have also criticized the bill
saying that "The so-called Women’s Protection Bill is a farcical attempt at
making the Hudood Ordinance palatable". The concern is that thousands
of rapes go unreported as victims fear that they would be treated as
criminals.

Chairperson of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Imran Khan, a critic of both the bill

and the amendments, has also voiced concerns and sceptism calling it an
eye-wash: "This bill doesn’t protect women, neither does it remove
anomalies. It’s just an eyewash by President Musharraf to tell Washington
that I’m your moderate man here. (..) Yes, the Hudood Ordinance
discriminates against women and should be repealed". Others, such as
Syed Afzal Haider of the Council of Islamic Ideology have called for the
Hudood Ordinance to be annulled: "The Hudood Ordinance should be
simply repealed. Any amendments made to it only manage to add to the
confusion".