An all-parties conference convened by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) asked the government on Tuesday to retract the "un-Islamic" Women Protection Act that gives unprecedented protection to female victims of violence.
The chairman of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Siraj-ul-Haq said Women Protection Act must be retracted, Waqt News reported. “The bill is totally against the Constitution of Pakistan and Sharia Law,” he said. “A new bill should be implemented following the advice of CII.”
He was reading the joint declaration of all religious parties’ conference, held in Mansoora today.
Siraj-ul-Haq further asked the government to end interest system in place of becoming a partner in it. “We demand that ban on religious activities must be ended,” he said.
While addressing the press, the JI head further demanded that people who are arrested without any warrant and procedure to be released. “The government must end the ban on madrassas,” he said.
Siraj has given a deadline of March 27 to the government for the retraction of the Women Protection Act.
The Women's Protection Act, passed by Punjab Assembly last month, gives legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence.
It also calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line, women's shelters and district-level panels to investigate reports of abuse and mandates the use of GPS bracelets to keep track of offenders.
Domestic abuse, economic discrimination and acid attacks made Pakistan the world's third most dangerous country in the world for women, a 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll showed.
"The controversial law to protect women was promulgated to accomplish the West's agenda to destroy the family system in Pakistan," read the joint declaration issued at the end of the concrescence. "This act ... is redundant and would add to the miseries of women."
The passage of the new law was welcomed by rights groups but spirits have since dampened as conservative voices have increasingly called for its retraction.
On Monday, Fazlur Rehman said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised him at a meeting that he would address the reservations of religious parties. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif heard our reservations against the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016. He promised to amend the law so that it doesn’t contravene the teachings of the Holy Quran,” Maulana Fazl told journalists at his residence.
Earlier this month, the Council of Islamic Ideology declared the Women’s Protection Act un-Islamic.
The religious parties of Pakistan have severely opposed the Punjab Women Protection Bill. JUI-F has called it against Islam and claimed that it will increase the divorce rate in the country. Other religious entities have also declared to launch a countrywide protest against the bill.
The religious parties and groups have also expressed their reservations over the government’s decision to hang Mumtaz Qadri on February 29. Qadri had killed the then Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer over allegations of blasphemy in 2011.