Pak puts off rape law reforms

Under pressure from fundamentalists, the Pakistan government has indefinitely deferred a bill which seeks to reform the controversial Hudood ordinance, under which all extra marital sex is a criminal act and a rape victim has to produce four male witnesses or face prosecution for adultery.

Rights groups in Pakistan and outside have been demanding the repeal of the ordinance, introduced by military ruler General Zia ul-Haq in 1979. Hundreds of Pakistani women have been imprisoned under this law.

But attempts by President General Pervez Musharraf's government to reform the law ran into stiff opposition from the mullahs and the Muttehida Majlis Amal, the radical Islamic alliance which rules the Tribal areas.

Among other things, the government's original proposal envisioned removing rape from the jurisdiction of the Islamic law which governs issues like marriage and divorce, and bringing it under the Pakistani penal code. And instead of four male witnesses, it wanted four adult witnesses to prove adultery.

But buckling

under opposition from the mullahs, earlier this week the government watered down the bill to say that rape victims would remain subject to the same punishment as those charged with adultery, but allowed the judge to decide whether to apply the regular penal code instead of the strict Hudood laws. It also proposed to criminalise 'lewdness' , so that even people including consensual sexual relations would be subject to a five year jail term.

Federal Law Minister Wasi Zafar said in a statement Tuesday that rape would remain under the jurisdiction of Islamic laws. However, "If a woman has four witnesses she can file a case under the Hudood law, or if she does not have witnesses she can file a case under the penal code," he said.

But following opposition from rights groups and its ally, the secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the government decided against tabling the watered down bill Wednesday, saying it would seek a 'consensus.'

More reports from Pakistan