Forced marriage to entail up to 7 years jail, Rs0.5m fine

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passes bill

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday passed legislation against forced marriage of women under which the violators would face up to seven years imprisonment and Rs500,000 fine or both.

The bill aimed at the elimination of the tradition of ‘Ghag’ was moved by the Provincial Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development, Sitara Ayaz.

When the mover presented the bill containing a punishment of 14 years imprisonment for the convicted person, Law Minister Arshad Abdullah pointed out the original bill approved by the provincial cabinet contained seven years punishment, but now it had been fixed at 14 years, questioning who had included the hike in the jail term in bill.

The woman minister requested his cabinet colleague not to oppose the amendment and let punishment be fixed at 14 years for the crime. The minister for law replied that they were sincere to the abolition of theGhag custom and wanted protection to women. However, he said that seven years was sufficient punishment and it should not be 14 years as it was against the CrPC.

Israrullah Khan Gandapur also supported him while Musarrat Shafi, an Awami National Party woman MPA said the punishment should not be more than seven years, as it would become repugnant to relevant clauses. The arguments of the legislators persuaded Sitara Ayaz to withdraw the amendment and the bill was given a nod.

Under the law the convicted persons under the Ghag Act would face punishment from three to seven years and cash fine of Rs.0.5 million or both. Such cases will be tried by the sessions court and crime will be non-bailable.

During the Tuesday proceedings, the minister for law also presented a bill for the establishment of Provincial Services Academy that proposed the setting up of academy for the training of the public sector employees in the province. The academy will have its fund and a board of governors with chief minister as its chairman while its Director General (DG) will be at least BPS-20 civil servant.

Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan, who holds the portfolio of Energy and Power, presented Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydel Organization (Amendment) Bill 2013, which besides the deleting of the world Khyber from the organization has also proposed the constitution of a separate Investment Committee to run the day-today affairs and executive committee headed by provincial minister concerned and investment of the funds.

The board of directors was expanded and two more ministers along experts would be included in it.Minister for Tourism, Archaeology, Museums, Youth Affairs and Sports Aqil Shah presented Travel Agencies Amendment, Hotel and Restaurants Amendment and Tourists’ Guide Amendment bills in the assembly. The legislation was necessitated under development of powers to the province under 18th Constitutional Amendment.

The reports of the standing committees on agriculture and health were also presented in the House.

Posted in: Peshawar news