BakuTODAY.net: Pakistan hardliners threaten protests after rape law reform

16/11/2006


Islamic fundamentalists vowed to hold mass protests after Pakistan's parliament voted that rape and adultery cases should no longer be heard under the country's harsh religious laws.

At present the laws say that women must produce four Muslim male witnesses as evidence of rape -- an almost impossible burden of evidence -- or potentially face adultery charges themselves.

"This bill has been brought under the directions of the United States and implemented by their representative in Pakistan, General Musharraf," Baloch told АFР.

Opposition leader and MMA secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rehman gave a fiery speech to lawmakers on Wednesday in which he warned that the bill would "turn Pakistan into a free-sex society."

The maximum sentence for adultery by a man or a woman under the laws is death by stoning, although that has never been enforced and those convicted of the crime get jail or a fine instead.

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