In a groundbreaking review of a provision of Qanun-e-Shahadat law, which exonerates a rapist by showing the victim to be of loose moral character, the Federal Shariat Court, on Wednesday (February 11, 2009), held the provision as against the teachings of the Holy Koran and Sunnah. A full bench of the Federal Shariat Court agreed that Article 151(4), of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984, ran counter to Koranic teachings and that of Sunnah and must be repealed within six months by the president of Pakistan. If not repealed in that time, the provision will automatically become ineffective.

The bench’s decision about the said provision will put an end to over two decades of sexist discrimination against women while also getting rid of the article that allows a backdoor for rapists, and attempting rapists, to get away with their crime by making allegations of immorality against their victims. Thus the end of the provision will greatly facilitate in providing justice to victims of sexual assaults. The bench also expressed its wonder over the daylights of the lawmakers who had allowed such a law to be enforced in the name of Islam.