Hudood Ordinance

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The Hudood Ordinance (Urdu: حدود مسودہ ) is a law in Pakistan, intended to implement Muslim Shari'a law, which enforces punishments mentioned in the Quran and sunnah for a number of crimes. It was enacted in 1979 as part of then military ruler Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization process.

The Ordinance is most criticized for making it exceptionally difficult and dangerous to prove an allegation of rape. A woman alleging rape is required to provide four adult male witnesses of "the act of penetration", and if the accused man is Muslim, the witnesses must be Muslims themselves. Failure to prove rape places the woman at risk of prosecution for adultery, which does not require such strong evidence^[1].

For married Muslims, the maximum punishment for zina is death by stoning, or for unmarried couples or non-Muslims, 100 lashes. In practise, only imprisonment has ever been enforced, because the maximum punishments require four eyewitnesses as above.

The Hudood Ordinance also criminalises drinking alcohol (punishment: 80 lashes) and theft (punishment: amputation of the right hand).

A number of international and Pakistani human rights organizations are making an effort to get the law repealed. However, they are opposed by conservative religious parties, who accuse the government of departing from Islamic values. The governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif both set up commissions to investigate the Hudood Ordinance. Both commissions recommended amending certain aspects of the law, but neither government followed through. In 2006, President Musharraf again proposed reform of the Ordinance^[2]. On November 15 2006, a bill was passed in Pakistan's National Assembly that will make rape prosecutable as a civil offense, falling under civil law. The bill was ratified by Pakistan's Senate on 23rd November 2006. The legislation became law after President Musharraf signed the legislation on 1 December 2006 in accordance with the Article 75 of the 1973 Constitution. The reforms have come under considerable opposition from Islamist groups in Pakistan, who insist that law should stay in Sharia form. However, legal personalities in Pakistan have opined that enforcement of the reforms will be difficult and the implementation of the same will bring very little change to the plight of women in the country^[3].