Hudood

Pakistan's Hudood (Islamic criminal) laws have been a source of controversy since their promulgation by the military regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979. For their supporters, these laws are a welcome step towards the enforcement of shari'ah (Islamic law) and, as such, represent a logical and inevitable progression of those historic processes that had led to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. To their opponents, these laws represent gross violations of fundamental human rights and constitutional norms designed to uphold democratic participation in lawmaking and the equality of citizens irrespective of their religion or gender. This paper surveys the contours of the controversies surrounding the Hudood laws, and seeks to broaden the horizons of the debate by incorporating an “Islamic critique” of these laws that has generally been lacking in the discourse. More importantly, the paper analyzes the role that the Federal Shariat Court has played in substantively shaping the law, through a chronological analysis of the Court's decisions on the most contentious aspects of the Hudood laws: the conviction of rape victims for zina (consensual adultery/fornication) regarding as proof the pregnancy caused by the rape. This analysis indicates the strengths of the Islamic critique and provides the basis of reforms that may offer a viable avenue for alleviating the hardships perpetrated in the application of the Hudood laws.