Adequacy of Protection of Women Act 2006 to Protect against the Mischief of Zina Ordinance 1979

For the past thirty-five years a major part of the Pakistani Criminal Laws was Islamicised through the Hudood (Enforcement of Hadd) Ordinance (1979) which in particular subjected women to the harsh reality of a patriarchal legal system. The Human Development in South Asia (2000) Report summarized these problems as follows: “Apart from the fact that the law is used to penalise rape victims as those who have indulged in extra marital sex, it has also been used by men to control and punish women in their own families, giving them a tool to enforce their own notions of women's conduct and to punish any deviations. Thus, a large proportion of women in jail on zina charges have been put there by their own fathers, brothers and husbands. These include girls who refuse to marry according to parental wishes, wives who wish to separate or terminate their marriages, women who leave their homes because of abuse, and women who refuse to go into prostitution.” The realisation of this impact of Zina Ordinance led to extensive domestic debate that became the basis for enacting Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act (2006). This Act attempted to make amendments in line with the criticisms and focussed upon how to protect women from unjustifiably being charged under the existing law. Whether or not the amendments were sufficient in achieving the said aim is a question that shall be considered here.

Hina Altaf Bajwa is a graduate of the LLB(Hons) programme of the University of London (International Programmes). She has worked at the Legal Analytical Research Center (LARC). She is the chairperson of the Women Rights Committee Punjab (Lahore High Court Bar Association) and currently works with the President of the Lahore High Court Bar Association.