Pakistan votes to amend rape laws
Hudood laws can punish women for extra-marital sex
Pakistan's parliament has voted to amend the country's strict Sharia laws on rape and adultery.
Until now rape victims had to have four male witnesses to the crime - if not they faced prosecution for adultery.
The new bill allows prosecutions under secular rather than religious law. Religous parties boycotted the vote saying the bill encouraged "free sex".
The reforms are being seen as a crucial test of President Musharraf's stated commitment to a moderate form of Islam.
It is still not clear if a rape victim or a judge will decide whether her case is tried by a civil or Sharia court.
'Lewdness'
A woman is raped every two hours and gang-raped every eight hours in Pakistan, according to the country's independent Human Rights Commission.
The bill will turn Pakistan into a free-sex zone
MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman
Correspondents say these figures are probably an under-estimation as many rapes are not reported.
Campaigners say Pakistan's laws have made it virtually impossible to prosecute rape.
Attempts to pass a new bill failed in September in face of angry opposition.
The version of the Women's Protection Bill put before legislators then caused such an outcry that parliament was prorogued.
It would have allowed alleged rapists to be tried under civil as well as Islamic law.
Human rights activists said this would have created confusion, allowing powerful religious lobbies to manipulate what is seen as a weak judicial system.
Pakistan's religious parties called the legislation "a harbinger of lewdness and indecency in the country", and against the strictures of the Koran and Sharia law.
They have threatened nationwide protests over the revised bill.
Addressing parliament on Wednesday, the leader of the six-party MMA Islamic alliance, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, said the bill would "turn Pakistan into a free-sex zone".
Law Minister Wasi Zafar, meanwhile, told a television station that "some of the MMA's proposals had been included in the bill".
Lashings
Rape and adultery in Pakistan are dealt with under the Hudood Ordinance, a controversial set of Islamic laws introduced from 1979 by Gen Zia-ul-Haq.
A Pakistani woman passes a portrait of President Pervez Musharraf
Gen Musharraf has said women need to be better protected
They include sections prescribing lashing and stoning as punishments for adultery.
The bill tabled in the summer has since been reviewed by a panel of ulema, or Islamic scholars, who suggested three revisions.
The government says it wants to achieve consensus. Observers say much depends on which draft has been tabled in parliament.
"The version which they distributed in the assembly appears to be the ulema committee's version," a senior ruling coalition MP told the BBC on the eve of the debate.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says the women's bill is also being seen as an indication of what political alliances might contest elections next year.
BBC
