ISLAMABAD, 19 December 2002 — The drums are beating in some quarters of Pakistan for the embrace of Islamic law as an increasingly powerful Muslim alliance sympathetic to the Taleban seeks imposition of Shariah over secular rule. Ever since the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance of six Islamist parties made dramatic gains in October polls, it has waged a loud and public campaign to convert age-old tenets of Islam into law in the world’s second largest Muslim-majority nation
It has already begun in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where the MMA is in charge. Its chief minister there, Akram Khan Durrani, has re-enforced bans on alcohol and gambling, rounded up dozens of offenders in an anti-obscenity drive, and urged the strengthening of Shariah tribunals which mete out justice in conjunction with civil courts. "The process of change has started," Durrani said in The News, an English-language daily. "It takes a lot of time to rectify the wrong." In neighboring Baluchistan province, where the MMA is in a power-sharing coalition, it recently demanded a ban on music on public transport, calling such expression "un-Islamic".
In Pakistan’s National Assembly it has emerged as a key power broker, opening the way for further Islamization. "It is clear that Pakistan was created for the implementation of Shariah law," MMA secretary-general Liaqat Baloch said in a recent interview. "The constitution clearly outlines the building of society on an Islamic basis. It is our duty. It is the need of the people, and the people of Pakistan strongly believe in it."
Pakistan is a Pandora’s box of ethnic identities. Factionalism and sectarian violence is rife. Islam is Pakistan’s unifying force — the country is about 97 percent Muslim — but extremism has been fomenting in frontier regions, fueled by rising discontent over the government’s alliance with the United States after last year’s Sept. 11 attacks. President Pervez Musharraf is now seeking to stem the influence of clerics in his own country.
Experts believe religious moderates will win out if a political battle rages with the mullahs, although not without possible concessions. "The MMA are serious about Islamization, but there is a lot of Islamic rhetoric," said Ayaz Amir, a columnist for the English language daily Dawn. "Further Islamic changes would be very unlikely unless the MMA comes to dominate national politics."
Despite secular views among Pakistan’s establishment, Pakistan already imposes strict Islamic punishments under the blasphemy ordinance of 1985 and stresses interest-free Islamic finance principles. Any other likely legal changes would be "cosmetic", Amir added. "What the Islamic predicament boils down to, in the final analysis, is having punitive or tough laws for sex or adultery or alcohol."
Religious minorities insist the issues extend beyond that, to the very rights of participating in an egalitarian system. "They say our rights are protected, but they only give verbal assurances of our protection," said Pervez Rafiq, a Christian member of Parliament in Punjab province. The umbrella group of which he is a member, the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, has called for the abolition of laws which legitimize discrimination. Members have also demanded changes to the constitution, which enshrines the principles of democracy, freedom and justice but, in the words of the preamble, "as enunciated by Islam." Rafiq said such calls for change have been met by threats and intimidation.
Musharraf’s own party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), acknowledges that Islam has a role to play in Pakistan’s political topography. But PML-Q spokesman Azeem Chaudhry acknowledges the realities of a 21st century world. "Pakistan cannot live in isolation," he said. (AFP)
