Why is a Pakistani bill to protect women unpopular?

More than 30 Pakistani religious groups are threatening to launch protests if a bill to protect women in Punjab province is not withdrawn. Why do they not support moves to reduce the abuse of women?

Why is the bill needed?

The United Nation's Gender Inequality Index puts Pakistan 147th in a list of 188 countries because of its poor record on women's health, education, political empowerment and economic status.

Over the decades, successive laws have sought to improve the position of women, but implementation has been lacking because it is mostly in the hands of male government functionaries and the police who consider most violence against women as a "family problem", or even provoked by women themselves.The present law introduces women as complaint takers and enforcers.

What does the bill do?

The Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2015 seeks to set up a women's force at district level throughout the province, which would respond to women's complaints of physical, financial or psychological abuse. Offences include domestic violence, sexual violence, psychological and emotional abuse, economic abuse, stalking and cyber-crime.

Why are religious hardliners unhappy?

On Tuesday more than 30 religious groups, including all the mainstream Islamic political parties, got together in Islamabad to condemn the law and to warn the Punjab government to withdraw it by 27 March. If not, they have threatened to launch protests. But the Aurat Foundation's Naeem Mirza believes that religious groups are more incensed over the way the new law seeks to empower women.

"A woman can ring up a toll-free number for help, women protection officers can enter any premises to rescue her, and the husband is constrained by the law from throwing her out of his house. If he remains violent, he can be turned out of his house, and forced to wear a GPS tracker to ensure he doesn't get anywhere near the victim until a settlement is reached," he says. "If implemented, these measures will fundamentally change the traditional power equation between men and women, something which the religious lobby will find hard to tolerate."

What happens now?

While the bill has been signed into law by the Punjab governor, the provincial government in Lahore is yet to formally notify it, fueling speculation that it may agree to dilute the bill by sending it back to parliament.

If the government backtracks, many fingers will be pointed at the powerful military establishment which is widely believed to have been behind past demonstrations by religious groups - from the movement of 1977 to the so-called "million marches" of the 1990s that toppled one political government after another. But many believe the government cannot afford to pay the political price of a retreat.

CULLED FROM BBC NEWS