Moves to Sharia in Pakistan

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 16

Moves to Sharia in Pakistan

By

HAMZA HENDAWI,

of Reuter, in Islamabad

Pakistan, created 39 years ago as a sanctuary for Muslims, is caught up in a controversy over how many of Islam’s strict tenets it should enforce.

Most of the 100 million population are Muslims and under the nine-year-old rule of the President, General Muhammad Zia ul Haq, the country has tried to become a ' "true Muslim State”.

Those caught defying a ban on alcohol are flogged and an in-terest-free banking system and sexual segregation are partly in force.

Courts have meted out harsher Islamic sentences, like stoning adulterers to death and cutting off thieves’ hands, but the punishments have never been carried out.

The balance between having Sharia (Islamic Laws) and not stringently enforcing them has existed since Pakistan’s creation on August 14, 1947, but fundamentalist politicians who want to transform the country into a model Islamic society are now threatening that balance. Their campaign is based on a draft bill tabled by Senate members of the orthodox Jamaat-i-Islami party which, if passed, would enforce Sharia to the letter.

Based on the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and the sayings of the Muslim prophet, Mohammed, the Sharia bill provides for social justice and defines a strict penalty code designed to rid society of crime and other social ills. General Zia, a devout Muslim, has publicly backed the bill, but Western diplomats say his support for it has led to strong differences with Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo’s Government, which wants less drastic Islamic legislation. Mr Junejo’s Government has sponsored an amendment bill to the 1973 constitution which would empower the Federal Sharia Court to revise existing laws and make recommendations for them to conform with Sharia after consultations with “experts on the subject”.

The amendment bill is much less sweeping than General Zia’s Sharia Bill which says any court decision which does not conform with Sharia would be void and challengeable in the Sharia Court

It also stipulates that any directives given by all people holding executive office, including the president and the prime minister, will be void if they do not conform with Sharia.

The National Assembly is expected to reconvene this month and diplomats say it is certain to endorse the amendment bill because the 237-seat chamber is dominated by Mr Junejo’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League (P.M.L.) party. But General Zia has urged Pakistanis to show their support for the Sharia bill and thousands of Muslims went on peaceful marches in several cities last month to call for its adoption. The Pakistani president’s enthusiasmfor Sharia has been a hallmark of his rule since he came to power after a leading a bloodless military coup in 1977.

General Zia won a five-year presidential term in 1984 by a referendum in which voters were asked to answer “yes” or "no” to whether they supported his Islamisation programme.

The diplomats said Mr Junejo’s Government sees the Sharia bill as a potentially divisive issue, but does not want to appear to be opposing Islamic teachings. “It serves no purpose for Mr Junejo to wear an anti-Sharia badge at a time when his Government is already under pressure from the Opposition,” said one diplomat. The Opposition, led by Pakistan People’s Party leader, Benazir Bhutto, is campaigning for fresh polls before the end of the year.

Mr Junejo’s 16-month-old Government launched its biggest crackdown on them last month when it rounded up scores of opposition leaders who vowed to defy a ban on political rallies on Pakistan’s Independence Day. At least 19 people were killed in the violence which followed.

The Minister for Religious Affairs, . Mir Haji Tareen, was quoted recently in the official media as saying the Sharia bill was “unacceptable to people and unenforcable by the Government”. “If the Government felt the need of a Sharia bill, it would introduce its own legislation,” he said.

Diplomats said Mr Junejo’s Government was concerned about a possible backlash from Shi’ite Muslims who make up some 15 per cent of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population. One Shi’ite leader, Agha All Musvi, said in a recent interview that Shi’ites would resist the adoption of the bill and warned that it would trigger sectarian strife.

"Shi’ites are ready to sacrifice

their lives in defence of their beliefs," Mr Musvi told the independent daily newspaper "Dawn.”

Pakistan’s Shi’ites took to the streets three years ago and forced the Government to exempt them from the introduction of Zakat, an Islamic tax system which Mr Musvi claimed would have given the sect the status of

a minority. Mr Junejo’s Government is under similar pressure from the Jamaat-i-Islami party over the Sharia issue.

The party’s General Secretary, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, said recently that it would protest if the bill was not adopted in its present form. The diplomats said such

threats were not empty as the Jamaat party was one of the better organised in the country and enjoyed wide support among students and city dwellers. “They are the ones who can bring out thousands to the streets when they want to and they can do it faster than any one else,” commented one diplomat on the Jamaat-i-Islami.