Daily Times

After a long wait and years of campaigning, the Punjab Assembly finally passed the Protection of Women Against Violence Act, 2016. The law follows long after Balochistan and Sindh passed far more comprehensive laws on domestic violence, and still leaves much to be desired. As one analyst befittingly commented, “Don’t celebrate the Punjab women’s violence bill just yet.” It is to be remembered, however, the Act will come into force at a future date, yet to be notified by the government.

In brief, the Act proposed to establish an elaborate mechanism to provide for ‘protection’ of women against ‘further or anticipated violence’. It fails to establish any special measures to enable the quick and just prosecution of alleged offenders, which remains the biggest hurdle in bringing perpetrators to justice. In this manner, the law is quite weak, owing in part to the reluctance of the Punjab government to comprehensively address violence against women.

However, this debate is overshadowed by the kneejerk reaction of what has been dubbed ‘an unholy alliance of’ religious parties and individuals to this law. This has only been exacerbated by reports of the Punjab and federal government outright succumbing to the pressure of the religious parties on a law that has been largely a project of the Punjab chief minister’s own Special Monitoring Unit.

The religious right’s ill-founded and superficial objections to the law are premised on a misreading that makes the law into a ‘husband-wife’ law, contrary to what it actually is: a law that is only gender-specific, and not confined to the domestic domain. Irrespective of what slogan the religious right is using to generate support and malign this law, it is very clear that their opposition is to all voices against violence against women. In doing so, are they siding with the very perpetrators of violence against women?

In these circumstances, campaigners for women’s rights, especially domestic violence, find themselves in a hard place: having to support the law, despite its shortcomings.

The campaign for legislative reform on domestic violence picked up speed since the lapse of the 2009 domestic violence bill in the federal parliament. Despite public promises and announcements, like in the Women Empowerment Package of 2012, Punjab government continued to drag its feet on this matter. There was a palpable reluctance to address domestic violence as an issue. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government went as far as to float a vague Family Protection Bill in 2012.

Civil society organisations, however, continued to lobby the government, and agitate for effective legislation, even forwarding a draft of domestic violence bill to Punjab government in February 2014. In 2015, government tabled its own bill for protection of women against violence. This bill was vehemently opposed by rights organisations for introducing merely cosmetic changes. Their key concerns on the law were on what forms of violence are covered in the bill and their given punishments.

Unfortunately, the law now passed by the Punjab Assembly has been further diluted, omitting some provisions existing in the bill in May 2015. For example, the definition of violence previously included ‘emotional and verbal abuse,’ which has since been struck off. This is tragic when one considers that such forms of violence are most frequently suffered by women in the form of humiliation, character assassination, threats of being turned out of the house, divorce and remarriage by a husband. Having worked on cases of violence against women for several years, it is clear that the law does not provide adequate remedies for such forms of violence. It only recognises extreme physical violence.

By contrast, the domestic violence bills of Sindh and Balochistan domestic not only include these forms of abuse but also elaborate what nature of actions can be categorised under them. The Punjab law, as a whole, has weak and ill-drafted definitions at best, and at worst, completely lacks definitions for terms like the nebulous ‘cybercrime’, ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘stalking’. This is certain to negatively impact the limited protection given in this law.

Furthermore, the law reads more like a future action plan for Punjab government’s projects. The protection that the law seeks to provide to aggrieved women is dependent on three key measures: setting up of protection centres (called Violence Against Women Centres) and shelter homes, appointing of Women Protection Officers and District Protection Committees and a toll-free helpline. Not one of these currently exists on the ground. The law does not mention what existing mechanisms can be utilised until establishment of these protection centres. The Special Monitoring Unit has, instead, unveiled impressive designs for purpose-built protection centres to be built in the future.

Similarly, government sporadically runs toll-free helplines for women only in some districts. It is unclear whether the same are to be repurposed for this new law. The law is, therefore, premised on setting up of specialised mechanisms that may take years.

The law allows an aggrieved woman or any other person authorised by her to approach the Family Court to seek relief. It introduces three new orders that the court can give in these instances. These are: a protection order (directing the perpetrator to not to come in contact with the complainant); a residence order in cases of domestic violence (against any unlawful eviction, giving a woman right to continue to reside in the house); and a monetary order (as compensation against any financial losses or economic abuse caused by the perpetrator). Violation of any of these orders is an offence under this law, but only a Protection Officer can file the complaint of such a violation. Even if the law is implemented without setting up the protection centres and helpline, the implementation will only be partial as every component of the law is dependent upon the other.

It is a common experience that recovery of maintenance payable by a husband or father granted by Family Courts has been an excruciatingly difficult task. In spite of this, this law does not have adequate coercive measures to ensure recovery in case of monetary orders. Evidently then, there is no immediate, actionable relief that this law gives women in Punjab.

At a glance, new laws to alleviate the problems faced by women are being introduced across the country. Balochistan and Sindh managed to enact domestic violence laws in 2014 and 2013 respectively. However, despite having drafted far more comprehensive laws, both Balochistan and Sindh have yet to formulate rules and set up protection committees under their respective laws. Punjab was therefore, quite late in legislating on the matter. When it did, it created a hollow law. Punjab’s much publicised anti-violence against women law is, at best, a shaky step forward. This shaky step forward is now in danger of further dilution under pressure from the religious right.

Sohail Akbar Warraich is a rights activist and has worked for over 20 years on women rights, including for laws on violence against women

Hiba Akbar is a Lahore-based lawyer and researcher