Pakistan: Rape law changes spark rallies

More than 10,000 supporters of Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf rallied in Karachi today to praise amendments by politicians to the country’s controversial Islamic rape laws.

Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament on Wednesday passed the Protection of Women Bill, which amended the 1979 Hudood Ordinance by ditching the death penalty for extra-marital sex and revising a clause on making victims produce four witnesses to prove rape cases.

Today, more than 10,000 supporters of the Mutahida Qami Movement, an ethnic-based party supporting Musharraf, marched through Karachi carrying signs praising the amendments as “Victory for Women.”

“We thank God that despite opposition by the clerics, a system of perpetrating oppression against women has been ended,” said movement leader Altaf Hussain, who addressed the rally by telephone from London.

Politicians from a coalition of Islamic groups oppose the amendments, saying the legislation was against Islam. Religious politicians staged a walkout from Parliament to protest Wednesday’s vote on the amendments.

Coalition supporters staged small rallies in different parts of Karachi to condemn the amendments.