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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's lower house of parliament voted today to put the crime of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of Islamic laws that rights groups have long criticised as unfair to women.
The Women's Protection Bill was seen as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened moderation" and a major battle in a struggle between progressive forces and religious conservatives over the Muslim nation's course.
Musharraf said in a television address to the nation the bill was part of a government campaign to empower women launched in 2000, soon after he seized power in a bloodless coup.
"We should be proud of it," Musharraf said. "The time has come for the moderate elements in Pakistan to come forward and show their real force to these extremists and tell the extremists they will have no more say in Pakistan," he said.
The Islamic laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, were introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979. They made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault.
The main amendment approved today takes rape out of the sphere of religious law and puts it under the penal code. That does away with the need for male witnesses and will allow convictions to be made on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence.
The amendment bill must be approved by the upper house of parliament before it becomes law.
Human rights campaigners have long pressed for total repeal of the Islamic laws, but have welcomed moves to amend them.
The amendments were fiercely opposed by an alliance of Islamist parties, which make up the main opposition bloc in parliament.
Islamist lawmakers walked out of parliament, boycotting the vote, after leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman told the assembly the change to the law would encourage free sex.
"This is an attempt to create a free sex zone in Pakistan," he said. "Existing laws are correct and should be maintained ... The changes are not in line with Islamic teaching."
Musharraf rejected that.
"I assure the nation that this bill is absolutely in line with the Koran and teaching of the Prophet. There is no violation of the Koran or the Prophet's teaching," he said.
In an apparent concession to conservatives, an amendment was introduced shortly before the vote setting down punishment of up to five years in prison for extra-marital sex, though sex outside marriage had always been an offence under laws on adultery.
Opposition members of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's more liberal Pakistan People's Party supported the bill.
The amendments also introduced the concept of statutory rape, outlawing sex with girls under 16. The Islamic code had banned sex with girls before puberty.
The government abandoned an attempt to pass the bill in September in the face of a threat from Rehman's Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance to pull out of the national and provincial assemblies if it was passed.
The Islamist leader did not repeat that threat today, and analysts said it was unlikely the religious parties would risk losing influence.
- REUTERS
