Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, Johns
Hopkins University, Washington DC
July 27, 2005
The hasty passage of
controversial Hisba (accountability) bill, termed as Taliban-style moral code
by critics, in the Northwest
Froentier Province
not only intensifies the struggle between Islamists and liberals, but also
challenges Pakistani president General Musharraf’s slogan of ‘enlightened
moderation’. The Hisba plan is seen as similar to the Department of Vice and
Virtue set up by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan . The disputed legislation
is just a short of governor’s ceremonial approval to become a full-fledge law. The governor, an appointee of General
Musharraf, strongly opposes the ‘Talibanization’ of the province.
BACKGROUND: Under the new law,
the North West Frontier Province government would appoint ombudsmen (mohtasibs)
– those who hold others accountable – at provincial, district and village levels
to ensure that people respect the call to prayers, pray on time, and do not
engage in commerce during the Friday prayers besides stopping unrelated men and
women from appearing in public places together, and discourage singing and dancing.
With a religious police under his command as an enforcement arm, the army of
newly-appointed mohtasibs would also monitor the media to ensure ‘useful for
the promotion of Islamic values’. Besides General Musharraf’s regime, human
rights organizations, politicians and media bodies see the attempt by the
religious clerics to ‘effectively
install ultra-conservative rule’ in the province, conflicting with fundamental
rights enshrined in the 1973 constitution and violating personal freedoms.
Although Pakistan ’s ruler, General Pervez Musharraf,
has hastened to file a rare presidential reference in the Supreme Court seeking
its opinion in a ‘damage control’ measure, the atmosphere is highly charged to
the benefit of six party religiouspolitical alliance – Muttahida Majlis Amal
(MMA) - ahead of nationwide local government elections.
The Frontier province, is the
only one amongst Pakistan ’s
four federating units to be ruled solely by the Islamists while the same
alliance is a coalition partner with the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League in Balochistan province
which also borders Afghanistan .
For the first time in the
country’s history, the religious parties grouped together ahead of the 2002 electoral
alliance in reaction to the invasion of Afghanistan
by United States
and its allies. The religious-political alliance managed to gain an unexpected
number of seats, predominantly in the NWFP and Balochistan provinces. Besides
playing on the anti-US and anti-Musharraf sentiments, the MMA leadership
promised replacing all secular laws and practices with the
Islamic ones once they were voted to power.
MMA Secretary General Maulana
Fazl-ur-Rahman, a religious cleric representing the Deobandi shade of Islam,
congratulating the people after the passage of the Hisba bill with a 68-43
vote, said, “We have delivered what we had promised to you in the election
campaign and with your cooperation, more such Islamic laws would be implemented
in the province.”
Although the law and order situation in the MMA-led province
has by far been the best over the past three years, there has been little
change in the standard of living of the common man in the Afghan
refugee-infested province. While the alliance’s leadership mulls creating an
Islamic society, their chosen chief minister and some of his cabinet members are being alleged
to have involved in corruption and nepotism. “To cover up their failings and
weakness, once again the mullahs are hiding behind Islam,” said Asma Jehangir,
former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Except cricket hero and
philanthropist Imran Khan’s Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Insaf party, every political circle in the country is questioning the
timing of the move. “More than their desire to Islamize Pakistani society, the
mullahs have timed the passage to regain support ahead of the local body
elections,” said Senator Farahatullah Babar of Pakistan Peoples’ Party. Still MMA leader Hafiz
Hussain Ahmad defended the passage of the controversial bill and questioned the
basis of General Pervez Muaharraf’s reference in the Supreme Court. The
superior court can interpret the laws but cannot reverse them or
give a judgment on their
practicability, he said.
Meanwhile, the 9-member court
bench led by the chief justice is set to start hearing into the presidential
reference under the Supreme Court Advisory Jurisdiction (Article 186 of the Constitution)
to extend its opinion on constitutionality and validity of the legislation in question.
IMPLICATIONS: Creating a
religious watchdog body to monitor the observance of religious values in public
places not only runs contrary to the much publicized ‘enlightened moderation’
but is also being propagated as ‘violation of fundamental rights’.
Although the passage of Hisba
bill has temporarily united the anti-Musharraf forces, the same circles continue
to blame the country’s military elite for creating an enabling environment for
the MMA’s advances in the 2002 general election.
While analysts foresee a tough
turf battle between the liberals and the Islamists, constitutional experts believe
that the enactment of the Hisba bill would encroach on an existing justice
system by creating a parallel one on religious lines, undermining judicial independence and denying citizens
their right of access to courts. Many analysts blame the Musharraf regime for deliberately
failing to engage the MMA government in talks but instead to opt to confront a democratically
elected provincial government.
“The insecure general needed
something fresh to remind the west how volatile the situation in the frontline state
is and how indispensable he remains as war on terror goes on without an end in
sight,” says Tariq Mahmood, former judge and president of Supreme Court Bar
Association.
Politically speaking, the
implications are serious for the camps, pro-Musharraf and the Islamists with local
bodies’ elections just around the corner in August and a general election
likely in 2006 after a likely deal with the liberal-minded but powerhungry Peoples’
Party led by Benazir Bhutto. On the ground, the gulf within the Pakistani
liberal elite and common people, majority of whom is relatively conservative,
has further widened after a recent crackdown on religious schools all over the
country following General Musharraf’s promise with British Premier Tony Blair
to extend all help in a probe into the 7/7 perpetrators.
CONCLUSIONS: Following the
government’s flawed handling of the MMA in the NWFP and the crackdown on
religious schools, the MMA, with its enormous and pro-active street power,
already seems to emerge as beneficiaries while Musharraf and his associates as
losers.
Whether the Hisba is enacted into
a law after ceremonial approval from the governor or shut down by the supreme
court, the MMA stands a fair chance to gain politically in the forthcoming
polls for attempting to Islamize the largely conservative northwestern province
in particular and the rest of the country in general. Since the fresh row with Musharraf’s
administration, the internal cracks of the MMA seem to have filled up and the
alliance is ready to contest the forthcoming series of elections.
Last time, it was 9/11 and the
subsequent carpet bombing of Afghanistan by the US-led coalition; while this
time, Musharraf regime’s mishandling of the Hisba bill and poorly planned
actions against religious schools in the backdrop of 7/7 are setting the tone
of the election campaign for the theocratic alliance. The MMA’s move to enact
the Hisba Bill has more political undertones than theocratic; yet civil society
activists are harping to create a paranoia amongst their ‘valued audience’ in the
western capitals.
AUTHOR’S BIO: Naveed Ahmad is an investigative journalist,
broadcaster and academic whose work regularly appears in the Pakistani daily newspaper,
The News, and the monthly magazine, Newsline. He also hosts a 30-minute current
affairs talk show, Insight, for Radio Pakistan ’s News and Current Affairs
Channel. He serves on the panel of the Global Journalists Program, which is
associated with the International Press Institute and U.S. National Public Radio.
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