Details

Technical Note

A Note on the Gender Discrimination: Exploring Judicial Bias in The Superior Courts of Pakistan

Moeen Cheema

INDUSTRY : Judicial System Pakistan

AREA : Corporate Law

ORGANIZATION : Seed

LENGTH : 16

LUMS No : 10-001-2005-2

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2005

KEYWORDS:

Gender Discrimination,Pakistan,Judicial System,Superior Courts,Judicial Bias

DESCRIPTION:

Discrimination against women in the criminal justice system of Pakistan has been an issue of considerable significance for some time. Attention concerning gender discrimination has focused primarily on the criminal and evidentiary laws introduced in recent decades as a result of the ¿Islamization¿ process initiated by the former military regime of General Zia ul Haq. As such, the Hudood laws pertaining to sexual offences (zina and zina-bil-jabr), the amendments to Chapter XVI of the Pakistan Penal Code - ¿Of Offences Affecting the Human Body¿ - in the form of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance, the amendments to the Qanoon-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (laws of evidence), and the lack of enforceability of Pakistan¿s criminal laws in cases of so-called ¿Honour Killings¿ and domestic violence have been subjected to scrutiny. In discussions concerning gender discrimination in Pakistan, it is sometimes assumed that the country¿s predominantly male judiciary, trial as well as appellate, is a party to this discrimination and as such is part of the problem rather than an independent arbiter of gender-susceptible issues. However, to date hardly any comprehensive study of the judgments of the courts in Pakistan has been conducted to establish the existence of judicial bias against women. To that end, this paper represents an attempt to analyze the approach of the superior courts of Pakistan, namely the High Courts and the Supreme Court, towards gender-sensitive issues through the study of their jurisprudence related to a facially gender-neutral criminal statute: the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. An increasing number of women are being prosecuted and convicted under the anti-narcotics laws of Pakistan and appellate court decisions in anti-narcotics cases are liable to reveal the attitudes of these courts towards the women accused of such crimes. Part 1 of the paper will outline the anti-narcotics laws of Pakistan. Part 2 will identify possible gender-related problems that may arise in the course of the application and interpretation of these ostensibly neutral rules. Part 3 of the paper will provide a review of specific court decisions involving women accused of anti-narcotics offences to determine the framework within which the judiciary passes its rulings. Part 4 will discuss various approaches towards gender advocacy. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

N/A

SUBJECTS COVERED:

Law