The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report also noted an increase in the killings of women in the name of honour, English ’Daily Times’ reported. Most such killings targetted women and girls who contracted marriages against family’s will.

Human-rights and civil-society organizations are demanding the repeal of the Hudood laws that were introduced by late military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979, to gain support of Muslim clerics for his rule.

President General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in October 1999, has called on religious scholars to review the strict Islamic laws that are considered highly discriminatory against women.

The HRCP report quoted the findings of the government’s National Commission on Status of Women, which said that 50 per cent of the inmates of a government-run shelter house for women, called ’Darul Amin’, were implicated under Hudood laws.

The commission has suggested repeal of the laws, while the hard-line Islamists, including the six-party religio-politico alliance of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, strongly oppose any change.

The HRCP has accused policemen of frequently violating the legal restrictions on keeping women overnight at police stations, saying that juvenile girls are held in various jails despite a ban on holding them alongside adult criminals.

International organizations estimate that up to 90 per cent of Pakistani women face domestic abuse. HRCP data showed that 96 cases of women suffering from severe burns had been reported between November 2004 and August 2005.

Similarly, 538 women and young girls were reported kidnapped during the same period.

The HRCP also found that 311 female suicide cases and 299 attempted suicides were reported in 2005.