Islamabad: Amid protests by religious hardliners, Pakistan's Senate on Thursday approved a bill to amend an Islamic law on rape that requires victims to produce four male witnesses to the crime before a court, paving the way for President Pervez Misharraf to sign it into a law.
After weathering fierce opposition from legislators in recent weeks, the Protection of Women Bill won majority approval in the Senate, which disregarded demands for amendments by members of the opposition.
The bill was first passed last week by Pakistan's National Assembly lower house. Members of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic alliance that rules two of the country's four provinces boycotted the Nov 15 vote, denouncing it as being repugnant to the teachings of Islam.
The bill amends provisions in the criminal laws considered oppressive to woman victims of rape and other sex crimes, but was condemned by some legislators as a conspiracy to turn Pakistan into a "free-sex zone".
In the heated debate about the bill, some liberal parties represented in the assembly also withheld support for its introduction because of their dislike of Musharraf, who assumed power in a military coup in 1999.
Rights activists and the United States and other foreign governments had been pressuring Musharraf's government to reform, if not revoke, the Islamic Hudood laws introduced by former military dictator Zia ul-Haq in 1979.
Aimed at containing sex crimes and murders, the laws were considered oppressive to women.
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