Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020, was passed by a majority in the Senate on Wednesday.
The legislation has been named after Zainab, a six-year-old who was kidnapped from her home in Kasur, raped and killed in 2018.
On February 24, the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights had approved changes in the bill, which had previously been applicable only to Islamabad.
Jamaat-i-Islami’s Siraj-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed voted against the bill, saying that they have reservations over it.
“The bill does not contain a provision for a death sentence,” Ahmed said, adding that: “A section on Qisas [eye for an eye] should be added.”
“Adding Sections 201 and 302 will make the bill more effective,” the JI lawmaker said.
On the other hand, Haq said that in the past few months, over three thousand children have been raped.
Without Qisas, we will not vote in favour of the bill and will stage a walkout,” he said.
Backing the JI senators, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s (JUI-F) Molvi Faiz Muhammad said: “The Islamic law already has Qisas as punishment for rape and murder.”
Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani, replying to the JI senators’ statement, said: “If you wanted changes to be made in the bill, you should have submitted them in the Senate Secretariat.”
