Date: Friday 22 September 2006
Subj: Pakistan: The perils of attempting Hudood reform.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
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PAKISTAN: THE PERILS OF ATTEMPTING HUDOOD REFORM
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In 1979 Pakistan's military dictator Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq launched his program to Islamise Pakistan. The first step was the introduction of Hudood Ordinance.
In 1984, as pressure intensified for an end military rule, Zia played the religion card for political gain to dragnet Muslim votes and get himself a mandate to pursue Islamisation and remain president.
Today, Pakistan is endeavouring to join the prosperous modern world, and President Musharraf is supposedly promoting "enlightened moderation". In line with these goals, the parliament is keen to expunge from Pakistan one of its most sickly, ugly blights: Hudood Ordinance. However, while the Sharia seed is easy to plant, and the Sharia plant is easy to feed, the Sharia tree is not easily removed.
Western politicians who think that in a democracy a majority is required to effect change, should consider the power of Pakistan's Islamist minority. The Islamist Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) are proving once again there is none so powerful as he who holds the balance of power (especially if he is willing to incite violence and destabilise the nation in order to have his way).
Western politicians who are flirting with Islamists and considering permitting the implementation of elements of Sharia as a concession, should consider Pakistan's reality as a warning. Sow Sharia for short term political gain, and it can never be removed or even cut back without immense trouble to the nation, pain, sacrifice and bloodshed.
THE PERILS OF ATTEMPTING HUDOOD REFORM
Under the Hudood code, a man and woman found guilty of having sex outside of marriage can be sentenced to death by stoning or 100 lashes. To prove rape, a woman must produce four adult male Muslim eye-witnesses to confirm her testimony; without that she will be found guilty of illicit sex. This leaves Christian women especially vulnerable. In fact, in such an environment, those who rape Christian women are virtually guaranteed impunity. It is estimated that around 80 percent of all women imprisoned in Pakistan are there on Hudood offences.
On 1 July President Musharraf issued an order enabling the release of an estimated 1,300 women held indefinitely in Pakistani prisons under the provision of the Hudood Ordinance.
The "Women's Protection Bill 2006", drafted by a parliamentary select committee, was to be tabled in Pakistan's parliament in early August. However, objections by cabinet members and religious parties saw it delayed until Monday 21 August. This was the third time the Bill had been presented to the parliament.
The draft Bill protects women by separating rape from consensual sex outside marriage, eliminating the four-witness requirement to prove rape, establishing that rape cases be tried in civil rather than religious courts, and by requiring that four witnesses be presented to prove adultery. Human rights groups are of course calling for the Hudood Ordinance to be repealed rather than amended.
Islam Online describes the impact of the Bill on the parliament and the Islamist response: "The introduction of the bill by the government on Monday, August 21, witnessed the worst pandemonium in Pakistani parliament. Opposition lawmakers shouted slogans against the government, tore up copies of the amendments and walked out. They accused President Pervez Musharraf of being a traitor and a friend of America." (Link 1)
Actually the Islamist Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) came close to being charged with blasphemy for tearing up copies of the Bill, because as its supporters noted, the Bill contained Quranic texts. (Link 2)
According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) representatives who sat on the parliamentary select committee were under clear instruction from their exiled leader, Benazir Bhutto, to give their support to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) in its efforts to amend the Hudood laws.
Even though the Women's Protection Bill had clear majority support to pass in the parliament, the Bill was scuttled due to the MMA's threat to resign en masse, thus massively destabilising Pakistan's already restive MMA-ruled western provinces, if the Bill was passed.
The MMA threat split the ruling PML. The reformists in the PML wanted to press ahead with reform, while the conservatives, led by PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain asserted that it would be political suicide for the PML to alienate its MMA partners and their Islamist constituents before the 2007 elections.
In early September the government moved to appease the Islamists by appointing an extra-parliamentary committee that included four MPs from the MMA as well as Islamic religious scholars to review the Bill and recommend a compromise.
The BBC reports that the extra-parliamentary committee determined "that rape should fall under both religious and secular law. It introduced a new, very broadly defined, category of 'lewdness' into the penal code, and reinstated a clause giving the Hudood Ordinances pre-eminence over any law with which they might come into conflict." (Link 3)
On Monday 11 September the government announced that it was accepting three of the conservatives' demands, including one keeping rape under the Islamic law, although it will also be a crime under the penal code. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) rejected the amendments outright. Sources told Pakistan's English-language newspaper "Dawn", "The PML, riven by internal disputes, preferred an awkward embrace with the MMA to a brief handshake with the PPP." An MP who wished to remain anonymous bemoaned the back-down saying, "And what have we gained by allowing the MMA to water down the amendments to the Hudood laws? The PPP is up in arms. Our touchy coalition partner, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, is on the warpath. And human rights organisations are pouring scorn on us.'" (Link 4)
The government - at least its reformist faction - bolstered by MQM and PPP support, have vowed to reintroduce the Women's Protection Bill to the parliament for the fourth time, in its original form - the form hailed by NGOs and human rights groups - when President Musharraf returns from his visit to the USA.
Meanwhile, Alt.Muslim reports that on Wednesday 23 August (2 days after the Bill was tabled in parliament) militants on a motorbike ambushed Manzoor-ul-Hassan as he left his office, and shot him through the mouth leaving him critically wounded. Manzoor-ul-Hassan is the editor of "Ishra", the monthly magazine of a leading Pakistani think-tank, Al-Mawrid Research Institute, which advocates equity, fairness and gender equality in Pakistan's Islamic Laws. (Link 5)
Sharia is never rolled back without bloodshed. This is the reality in Pakistan. This is a warning for the West.
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Hudood Bill Stirs Debate in Pakistan
by Umer Farooq, IOL Correspondent
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-08/24/05.shtml
2) Protest against lawmakers
By Mujahid Ali, 25 August 2006
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Pakistan/10062550.html
3) How Pakistan's rape reform ran aground
By Barbara Plett, BBC News, Islamabad,15 Sept 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5346968.stm
4) What made PML turn to MMA: MQM rejects changes in Hudood laws
http://www.dawn.com/2006/09/13/top1.htm
5) Shooting A Shaykh In The Mouth
By Ali Eteraz, 25 August 2006
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1769_0_25_0_C
Showing posts with label Hudood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hudood. Show all posts
Friday, September 22, 2006
Friday, June 6, 2003
Pakistan: Islamisation or dictatorship or both?
Date: Friday 6 June 2003
Subj: Pakistan: Islamisation or dictatorship or both?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
Pakistan's central government and the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six pro-Sharia, pro-Taliban Islamist parties who rule the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and hold the balance of power in the National Assembly, are on a collision course. However, President Musharraf and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-Q) need MMA support in order to break the political deadlock, over President Musharraf's 'Legal Framework Order' (LFO) that President Musharraf issued in by decree before that last election. The situation opens the door for the MMA to use their own Islamisation and Constitutional amendments package as political leverage.
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THE MMA AND THE BALANCE OF POWER
On 21 August 2002, before the 10 October 2002 elections, President Musharraf announced that he had issued a decree - the Legal Framework Order - that amended the constitution, giving him sweeping powers to sack a prime minister, dissolve parliament and set up a National Security Council, on which four military chiefs and eight civilian political leaders would sit, and which he, as president, would head, giving the armed forces a permanent role in the country's governance.
All opposition parties, including the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), opposed the Legal Framework Order (LFO). However, the October 2002 election resulted in the pro-Musharraf party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-Q) winning the largest number of seats. The opposition accuses Musharraf of manipulating the poll by passing laws blocking Mr Nawaz Sharif of the PML-N and his fellow exiled former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto of the PPP, from returning to power on the grounds they have served twice before as prime minister.
In spite of the fact that the Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-Q) won the most seats, they did not win enough to govern outright. The result was a hung parliament. Of the 324 seats in the National Assembly, Musharraf's PML-Q now holds 118, Bhutto's PPP holds 81 and the MMA secured an astonishing 60 seats enabling the MMA to hold the balance of power.
By early November, a coalition had formed between all those parties opposed to Musharraf's constitutional changes (the LFO). On 11 November however, Musharraf met with the MMA vice president, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, for over two hours. Mr Ahmed told President Musharraf that the MMA was ready to accept him as president if he took back his constitutional package (LFO) and left the post of the Chief of the Army. Musharraf would not accept. Yet - by 13 November 2002, the MMA and the pro-Musharraf PML-Q had "narrowed their differences" and the MMA was agreeing to be "flexible". This paved the way for a PML-Q / MMA coalition government to be formed.
THE VALUE OF LEVERAGE
To this day however, the constitutional issues have not been resolved and there is debate about whether the constitutional amendments made by the Legal Framework Order (LFO) are valid. On top of this, the MMA, which rules the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in its own right (holding 68 of the 124 seats) has, as of Monday 2 June, officially adopted Sharia law in NWFP. They have also passed the Hasba Act that enables them to establish a Department of Vice and Virtue, Taliban-style. Militant youths are pulling down billboards, trashing music stores and wreaking havoc across the NWFP. All 24 local governors - 'nazims' - have handed in their resignations to President Musharraf. Musharraf has responded by sacking the NWFP's chief secretary and inspector general of police over their enforcement of Sharia. This has put the NWFP, MMA government on a collision course with the pro-West central government.
All the meanwhile, the PML-Q president, Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, was trying to strike a deal with the MMA, to convince the MMA to co-operate with the PML-Q and break the political deadlock over the Legal Framework Order.
The strategic hour had arrived for the MAA to bring out its greatest weapon - its political leverage. The MMA has agreed to an about-face on the LFO, saying they will be willing to relax their opposition to the LFO and accept Musharraf as President, in Army uniform, provided the government is willing to accept the MMA's Islamisation package.
THE MMA'S ISLAMISATION PACKAGE.
This Islamisation package extends beyond the NWFP. The MMA's Islamisation package contains 17 demands - 7 are related to the LFO, and 10 are related to Islamisation. These demands include: a revision of media policy to bring it in line with Islamic values, the setting up of commissions and institutions to streamline the education system and economy according to Islamic teaching, the promotion of the shalwar kameez, (long smock with lose-fitting trousers) as the "national uniform" (to be made compulsory in all schools and colleges), Friday to be a weekly public holiday, and that Musharraf's Madrassa Ordinance be repealed and madrassa's be removed from the "watch list".
Another demand of the MMA is an amendment to Article 2 of the Constitution - "Islam shall be the State religion of Pakistan", to include that all laws will be in conformity with the Quran and Sunnah as per the recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology, to ensure that no legislation contrary to the Sharia is carried out in the future. (The Council of Islamic Ideology was set up in the 1970s to ensure that all laws would be in accordance with Sharia, but it has always had a limited role.) The MMA also demands that all recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology be discussed in the parliament and amendments be made in the constitution accordingly to ensure the supremacy of Sharia in the country.
A further MMA demand is the removal of the President's power to pardon a person sentenced by the High Court in Hadood (or Hudood) cases. The Hadood Ordinance criminalizes non-marital rape, extramarital sex, and several alcohol, gambling, and property offenses. The Hadood Ordinance however, makes it necessary for a woman who has been raped to produce four adult male Muslim eye-witnesses to the crime who are willing to testify in her favour or else she, the rape victim, is imprisoned until the courts determine her fate.
The PML-Q president, Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, claims that while 10 of the MMA demands have been already agreed to, the rights of women and minorities will be ensured.
President Musharraf has summonsed the National Assembly to meet in Islamabad on 7 June 03 for the announcement of the national budget. Security will be high as disturbances from those opposed to the LFO are expected.
President Musharraf has two options - to rule by dictatorial decree and reign in the MMA, or to yield and be manipulated by the MMA.
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After the October 2002 elections Benazir Bhutto said, "The military want to hold a red rag up to the West and say 'Look West, you need a military dictatorship, because if there's not, then pro-Taliban parties are going to come to power'. The MMA is a frightening scenario because when you create genies, genies get out of hand. What we have seen in the MMA is a genie of frightening proportions." (AFP 13 October 2002).
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links: here are two articles that, together, cover the issue
reasonably well.
"Standoff Paralyzes Pakistan Parliament" by Paul Haven
Associated Press, 4 June 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2748717,00.html
"MMA proposes 17-point agenda to settle LFO issue"
Paktribune. Islamabad, 31 May 2003
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=27050
Subj: Pakistan: Islamisation or dictatorship or both?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator
Pakistan's central government and the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six pro-Sharia, pro-Taliban Islamist parties who rule the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and hold the balance of power in the National Assembly, are on a collision course. However, President Musharraf and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-Q) need MMA support in order to break the political deadlock, over President Musharraf's 'Legal Framework Order' (LFO) that President Musharraf issued in by decree before that last election. The situation opens the door for the MMA to use their own Islamisation and Constitutional amendments package as political leverage.
--------------------------------------------------
THE MMA AND THE BALANCE OF POWER
On 21 August 2002, before the 10 October 2002 elections, President Musharraf announced that he had issued a decree - the Legal Framework Order - that amended the constitution, giving him sweeping powers to sack a prime minister, dissolve parliament and set up a National Security Council, on which four military chiefs and eight civilian political leaders would sit, and which he, as president, would head, giving the armed forces a permanent role in the country's governance.
All opposition parties, including the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), opposed the Legal Framework Order (LFO). However, the October 2002 election resulted in the pro-Musharraf party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-Q) winning the largest number of seats. The opposition accuses Musharraf of manipulating the poll by passing laws blocking Mr Nawaz Sharif of the PML-N and his fellow exiled former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto of the PPP, from returning to power on the grounds they have served twice before as prime minister.
In spite of the fact that the Pakistan Muslim League-Quid-e-Azam (PML-Q) won the most seats, they did not win enough to govern outright. The result was a hung parliament. Of the 324 seats in the National Assembly, Musharraf's PML-Q now holds 118, Bhutto's PPP holds 81 and the MMA secured an astonishing 60 seats enabling the MMA to hold the balance of power.
By early November, a coalition had formed between all those parties opposed to Musharraf's constitutional changes (the LFO). On 11 November however, Musharraf met with the MMA vice president, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, for over two hours. Mr Ahmed told President Musharraf that the MMA was ready to accept him as president if he took back his constitutional package (LFO) and left the post of the Chief of the Army. Musharraf would not accept. Yet - by 13 November 2002, the MMA and the pro-Musharraf PML-Q had "narrowed their differences" and the MMA was agreeing to be "flexible". This paved the way for a PML-Q / MMA coalition government to be formed.
THE VALUE OF LEVERAGE
To this day however, the constitutional issues have not been resolved and there is debate about whether the constitutional amendments made by the Legal Framework Order (LFO) are valid. On top of this, the MMA, which rules the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in its own right (holding 68 of the 124 seats) has, as of Monday 2 June, officially adopted Sharia law in NWFP. They have also passed the Hasba Act that enables them to establish a Department of Vice and Virtue, Taliban-style. Militant youths are pulling down billboards, trashing music stores and wreaking havoc across the NWFP. All 24 local governors - 'nazims' - have handed in their resignations to President Musharraf. Musharraf has responded by sacking the NWFP's chief secretary and inspector general of police over their enforcement of Sharia. This has put the NWFP, MMA government on a collision course with the pro-West central government.
All the meanwhile, the PML-Q president, Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, was trying to strike a deal with the MMA, to convince the MMA to co-operate with the PML-Q and break the political deadlock over the Legal Framework Order.
The strategic hour had arrived for the MAA to bring out its greatest weapon - its political leverage. The MMA has agreed to an about-face on the LFO, saying they will be willing to relax their opposition to the LFO and accept Musharraf as President, in Army uniform, provided the government is willing to accept the MMA's Islamisation package.
THE MMA'S ISLAMISATION PACKAGE.
This Islamisation package extends beyond the NWFP. The MMA's Islamisation package contains 17 demands - 7 are related to the LFO, and 10 are related to Islamisation. These demands include: a revision of media policy to bring it in line with Islamic values, the setting up of commissions and institutions to streamline the education system and economy according to Islamic teaching, the promotion of the shalwar kameez, (long smock with lose-fitting trousers) as the "national uniform" (to be made compulsory in all schools and colleges), Friday to be a weekly public holiday, and that Musharraf's Madrassa Ordinance be repealed and madrassa's be removed from the "watch list".
Another demand of the MMA is an amendment to Article 2 of the Constitution - "Islam shall be the State religion of Pakistan", to include that all laws will be in conformity with the Quran and Sunnah as per the recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology, to ensure that no legislation contrary to the Sharia is carried out in the future. (The Council of Islamic Ideology was set up in the 1970s to ensure that all laws would be in accordance with Sharia, but it has always had a limited role.) The MMA also demands that all recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology be discussed in the parliament and amendments be made in the constitution accordingly to ensure the supremacy of Sharia in the country.
A further MMA demand is the removal of the President's power to pardon a person sentenced by the High Court in Hadood (or Hudood) cases. The Hadood Ordinance criminalizes non-marital rape, extramarital sex, and several alcohol, gambling, and property offenses. The Hadood Ordinance however, makes it necessary for a woman who has been raped to produce four adult male Muslim eye-witnesses to the crime who are willing to testify in her favour or else she, the rape victim, is imprisoned until the courts determine her fate.
The PML-Q president, Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, claims that while 10 of the MMA demands have been already agreed to, the rights of women and minorities will be ensured.
President Musharraf has summonsed the National Assembly to meet in Islamabad on 7 June 03 for the announcement of the national budget. Security will be high as disturbances from those opposed to the LFO are expected.
President Musharraf has two options - to rule by dictatorial decree and reign in the MMA, or to yield and be manipulated by the MMA.
-----------------------
After the October 2002 elections Benazir Bhutto said, "The military want to hold a red rag up to the West and say 'Look West, you need a military dictatorship, because if there's not, then pro-Taliban parties are going to come to power'. The MMA is a frightening scenario because when you create genies, genies get out of hand. What we have seen in the MMA is a genie of frightening proportions." (AFP 13 October 2002).
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links: here are two articles that, together, cover the issue
reasonably well.
"Standoff Paralyzes Pakistan Parliament" by Paul Haven
Associated Press, 4 June 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2748717,00.html
"MMA proposes 17-point agenda to settle LFO issue"
Paktribune. Islamabad, 31 May 2003
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=27050
