Law protecting women passed in Pakistani national assembly (Roundup)

Nov 15, 2006, 18:20 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan's National Assembly Wednesday passed a bill on protecting the rights of women in the face of fierce opposition from Islamist legislators.

Members of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic alliance that rules two of the country's four provinces boycotted the vote on the Protection of Women Bill, denouncing it as being contrary to the teachings of Islam.

Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman led the onslaught by condemning the bill as 'a conspiracy to turn our Islamic country into a free-sex zone.' The bill amends provisions in criminal laws considered to discriminate against female victims of rape and other sex crimes.

Apparently to appease the Islamists, the government party incorporated a key amendment sought by the MMA that makes sex between a consenting man and woman not married to each other a crime punishable by a fine and five years in jail.

Anyone falsely accusing a couple of fornication would face prosecution.

Rights activists and the US and its allies had been pressuring President Pervez Musharraf's government to reform, if not revoke, the Islamic Hudood laws.

The laws decreed by former military dictator Zia ul-Haq in 1979 dealing with sex crimes and murders were considered discriminatory to women.

Even some liberal parties represented in the assembly withheld their support for the bill because of their dislike of General Musharraf, who assumed power in a military coup in 1999.

A spokesman for Sharif's faction of Pakistan Muslim League, Ahsan Iqbal, alleged that the bill was intended to divide the opposition.