Rafaqat Ali Producer - BBC World Service Urdu Service

The Court ruled that if a woman was raped she was not liable to punishment under the Islamic punishments of Hadd and Tazir.

This was the first ruling of its kind from any superior court. The last two decades have seen women in Pakistan being imprisoned because their brothers, fathers and husbands accused them of adultery and premarital sex.

If a crime is committed in a place where there are only women, the rapist or thief cannot be brought to justice, because the only witnesses are women.   Justice Majida Rizvi

On the 8 February 2004, Pakistan's Home Minister informed the Parliament (the Senate) that during the last six years, 4101 persons had been killed in disputes relating to honour crimes. Of those, 2774 were women. The situation has not improved.

Despite the Federal Shariat Court ruling, the victimisation of women in Pakistan continues.

Background

Islamic laws were established by General Ziaul Haq in 1979.

They deal with four kinds of offences that would be liable for Hadd, a punishment predetermined by the Quran. They are: offence against property (theft and armed robbery); offences of Qazf (bearing false witness or making false accusations); prohibition (drug trafficking and alcohol consumption), and offences of Zina (rape, abduction of women and zina or adultery.)

Two sets of punishment are provided by the Hadd and Tazir laws. The Hadd punishment can only be administered on confession of the accused or if the act has been witnessed by four adult Muslim males who are "truthful, and abstain from major sins" and are willing to testify.

Evidence

Evidence coming from non-Muslim witnesses cannot be accepted in the cases where the accused are Muslims. Their evidence is only accepted in cases that refer to non-Muslims, as these Islamic laws are also applicable to non-Muslims.

Testimonies from women in rape cases is excluded. "If a crime is committed in a place where there are only women, the rapist or thief cannot be brought to justice, because the only witnesses are women," said Justice Majida Rizvi, head of the government appointed National Commission on the Status of Women, in May 2004.

General Zia also established an institution – The Federal Shariat Court – to continue the radicalisation of society. This court was vested with the power to examine all the existing laws of the country to see if those were in conformity with Islamic injunctions.

Nature of crime

Pressure from the Federal Shariat Court saw the country's law dealing with murder altered. The law, called Qisas and Diyat, changed the nature of crime and in most cases the victims are women.

Before the introduction of Qisas and Diyat, murder was an offence against the State, but now it is considered an offence against the heirs of the deceased.

The heirs enjoy absolute power to pardon the killer in exchange of "compensation" which varies depending on the financial position of the offender.

In the case of Qisas and Diyat, murder within a family is, in practice, no crime. Women can be killed by their close relatives – brothers, fathers and uncles – for dishonouring the family, and the legal heirs of the deceased girls can pardon the killers.

The National Commission on the Status of Women has recommended that the government repeal the Hudood laws, as they are poorly drafted and politically motivated. To date, the government has not stated its intention to repeal them.