MULTAN The City

‘Punjab Women Violence Act 2015
tabled in PA without consultation’
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: National Commission for Justice and Peace Executive Director Cecil Chaudhry on Tuesday expressed reservations on the Punjab Women Violence Act 2015 and said that the bill was prepared and tabled in the Punjab Assembly without consulting the civil society and rights’ activists.
Talking to The News here, Cecil Ch said that the NCJP on the behalf of civil society pleads that the bill should be reviewed to criminalise all forms of violence against the women. The NCJP also demands that the punishments in the bill should be prescribed as per the Pakistan Penal Code to put emphasis on prevention rather than cure, he added. He said that the women had not been given due protection in the context of social or domestic violence. Various women rights coalitions, organisations and women’s rights activists had presented and tabled domestic violence bill in 2014 to ensure protection of women in home, he continued. The Punjab government had decided bringing the Punjab Women Violence Act 2015 to ensure protection of women and to satisfy the international community over the government priorities on women violence, he added. The Punjab government had asked the Punjab Social Welfare officers to consult with civil society and human rights activists but the department prepared the bill on women violence without any involvement of civil society in its making, he maintained. He said that the bill lacks criminalisation and strong precautionary measures for prevention of violence against women in any form. Psychological counselling of the victims had also been neglected in the bill, he added.