Women’s Fundamental Rights Bill Rejected by Senate Body

Emma Barnhoorn

Pakistan Human Rights Researcher,

Global Human Rights Defence.

The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice [1] rejected two amendments to the Constitution of Pakistan [2] on Wednesday, November 3. One of these amendments seeked to declare women’s inheritance a fundamental right, but was rejected by a majority vote.

In the amendments, some crucial changes were suggested to provisions of the Constitution related to the promulgation of ordinance, increase in the powers of the Senate, and ensuring meaningful participation of the provinces in the affairs of the federation and fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan. The committee members were divided in their opinion, but Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Saadia Abbasi seeked to include the right of inheritcance for women as a fundamental right. She suggested a insertion of a new Article 24A which read: “no women shall be deprived of her share from the inheritance in Pakistan”. In her argument, she prescribed well-defined shares for male and female descendants of a deceased person as very important. She further said that Islamic law entitled women to inherit immovable and movable properties, but the practice has so far denied women their share in inheritance, which she termed as an unjustified practice that sadly became a norm. She concluded by saying that the purpose of the amendment was to acknowledge, declare and assert the right of women in inheritcane as a fundamental right in consonance with principles of Islam. If the amendment were to be approved, it would enable women to directly approach the Supreme Court of Pakistan on matters related to inheritance. 

Sadly, Railways Minister Azam Swati and more were of the view that relevant laws already existed on this matter and that there was no need to list the right to inheritance as a fundamental right. Consequently, the bill was rejected (Wasim, 2021).

Notes

[1]: for more information on the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, please visit their website via this link: http://www.senate.gov.pk/en/details_standingcommitties.php?id=152. 

[2]: for the full text of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, please follow this link: http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/. 

Sources and further reading:

Wasim, A., (2021, November 4) “Senate body rejects bill declaring women’s inheritance fundamental right” https://www.dawn.com/news/1655782/senate-body-rejects-bill-declaring-womens-inheritance-fundamental-right.