Women's Protection Bill

The Women's Protection Bill (Urdu: خواتین کے تحفظ کے بل) which was passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan on 15 November 2006 is an attempt to amend the heavily criticised 1979 Hudood Ordinance laws which govern the punishment for rape and adultery in Pakistan. Critics of the Hudood Ordinance alleged that it made it exceptionally difficult and dangerous to prove an allegation of rape, and thousands of women had been imprisoned as a result of the bill. The bill returned a number of offences from the Zina Ordinance to the Pakistan Penal Code, where they had been before 1979, and created an entirely new set of procedures governing the prosecution of the offences of adultery and fornication, whipping and amputation were removed as punishments. The law meant women would not be jailed if they were unable to prove rape, and allows rape to be proved on grounds other than witnesses, such as forensics and DNA evidence.

The Bill remains controversial amongst many liberals and moderates in Pakistan who argue it does not go far enough as stoning to death is still theoretically on a punishment, though not implemented by the courts, the liberals argue it should be removed entirely. However, some religious parties have called the bill Un-Islamic and by extension unconstitutional, however the Supreme Court of Pakistan has not overturned the Bill on the grounds that it violates the Islamic provisions in Pakistan's constitution, hence stands to the present day. Pakistan's largest province, Punjab passed another women's bill which instituted further reforms this is pending before the courts on grounds of unconstitutionality.

The Hudood Ordinances, enacted by military ruler Zia ul-Haq in 1979, criminalise adultery and non-marital consensual sex. They also made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she cannot produce four male witnesses to the assault.

A 2003 report by the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) estimated "80% of women" were incarcerated because "they had failed to prove rape charges and were consequently convicted of adultery." According to legal scholar Martin Lau

While it was easy to file a case against a woman accusing her of adultery, the Zina Ordinance made it very difficult for a woman to obtain bail pending trial. Worse, in actual practice, the vast majority of accused women were found guilty by the trial court only to be acquitted on appeal to the Federal Shariat Court. By then they had spent many years in jail, were ostracized by their families, and had become social outcasts.

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Wikipedia