Pakistan court rules on adultery

Women in Pakistan say the laws are biased

Pakistan's highest Islamic court has issued in full a ruling that women forced into committing adultery should not face legal proceedings under Islamic sharia law or the country's penal code.

Every precaution should be taken to ensure no innocent person gets punished

Court ruling

A judgment from the Federal Sharia Court found that forced adultery was a form of rape for which the man involved should be punished, not the woman.

The court was ruling on an appeal from a woman, Zafran Bibi, whom a court in the city of Kohat had condemned to death by stoning.

Her sentence was overturned in June, but the Federal Sharia Court has only now published its full judgment.

Correspondents say women's groups have often complained that the Pakistani law relating to adultery is heavily biased in favour of men, making it almost impossible for women to seek justice.

'Precautions'

The Federal Sharia Court said no woman should be punished for the fact that she had been part of an act that had been carried out forcibly.

"Every precaution should be taken to ensure no innocent person gets punished," the court said in a three-page judgement.

"The other party who causes coercion shall be liable to punishment either under Islamic law or the penal code, depending on what the basis of evidence in the case might be," it added.

The court also ruled that mere pregnancy, in the absence of other evidence to show that adultery had taken place, did not provide grounds for punishment under sharia law.