June-July  2003 
Year 9    No.88

Neighbours



Talibanising Pakistan

December 1, 2002
Durrani kicks off Islamisation in NWFP

PESHAWAR: Newly elected NWFP Chief Minister Akram
Khan Durrani set the tone of his MMA government by announcing a ban on wine sales, the running of gambling dens, and the playing of music and VCRs in public transport in the province, with immediate effect on Friday, even before taking oath, while addressing the NWFP Assembly immediately after the CM’s election result was announced.

He also said there was no hurdle in the enforcement of Islamic system in the province. Addressing the House after his election, he said he was a true follower of the Jamiatul Ulema Islam’s last NWFP chief minister, Mufti Mehmood, and vowed to pursue his mission.

The newly elected Leader of the House said that the province’s bus stands had no mosques for women and hinted at the construction of separate mosques and ablution places for women at every bus stand in the province... (Balochistan Post).

June 1, 2003
NWFP directs depts. to ensure prayer arrangements

PESHAWAR, May 31: The NWFP government has issued directives to heads of all provincial departments to make arrangements for prayers at their respective departments, in line with the implementation of Shariat Law in the province, said a notification issued here on May 31.

The notification received by the departments concerned from the Establishment & Administration Department, NWFP, on May 31, also said that the decision of the provincial cabinet with regard to Islamisation of the province be implemented in letter and in spirit within 15 days positively.

It further said that in line with the recommendations of the Shariat Council, the departments concerned were required to implement the decision in letter and in spirit.

The notification said that it was obligatory on all Muslims to mould their lives in accordance with the injunctions of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. Some parts of the Shariat Laws approved by the provincial cabinet needed to be implemented immediately, it said.

The notification has exhorted heads of all provincial departments to perform prayers themselves during office timings and also make elaborate arrangements for the performance of prayers by their subordinates. It has also directed that the departments concerned should observe a 30-minute break from 1.00 p.m. to 1.30 p.m. in order to enable all employees and students in educational institutions to perform their Zohr prayers.

The departments have also been asked to provide space for prayers and arrange for waters and bathrooms in the premises of the departments, for ablution. To inculcate a sense of spirit and strengthen the faith of the staff, five minutes should be reserved for teaching the meaning of the Quranic verses and Hadith after Zohr prayers.

The directive also said that construction of mosques be made mandatory in the PC1 of all new constructions. Similarly, the construction of mosques should occupy centre-stage in the feasibility reports of all residential schemes. The notification has further made obligatory the construction of mosques in all big restaurants, markets, shopping plazas and recreation resorts in the province.

It has also directed the officials concerned to make arrangements for pasting of notice boards and banners, inscribed with such writings that could create the fear of God and enhance the spirit of morality among the people. For such writings, the department concerned should contact the Shariat Council to seek its guidance.

Likewise, it said, the Urdu translations of the Quranic verses and Hadith be prominently displayed at all Chowks, intersections and busy places, like bus stands and airports and on the road from Peshawar to Attock Bridge. Advertisement companies should be contacted to replace vulgar signboards by the Quranic injunctions and take special care that women were not portrayed in a negative sense.

Mosques, toilets and waiting rooms should be built at all public places, the provincial ministers would act as supervisors, who would carry out special visits aimed at the implementation of these orders in toto. (The Nation).

June 4, 2003
Shariah law adopted in Pakistani province

The parliament of Pakistan’s North West Frontier province passed a bill yesterday to implement Shariah, or Islamic law, in the region, which borders Afghanistan.

The bill was approved by the provincial assembly, making it the only Pakistani province to take such a step.

The assembly is dominated by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a six-party alliance of Islamist parties.

Akram Durrani, the province’s chief minister, said: "From today, Shariah law will be implemented in the province and there will be no place in the province for those who refuse to follow it."

But the province’s law minister, Zafar Akram, declined to give details of what the new act will mean in practice. Islamic legal authorities are divided about the strictures of Shariah.

An assembly official said a commission would examine existing laws and bring them into line with Shariah, including a ban on interest-based loans, a key demand of the MMA at the national level.

Mr. Azam said the provincial government would introduce a new bill today to set up a department to promote religious observance, which critics say is modelled on Saudi Arabia’s religious police, which the Taliban also set up. (The Guardian, London).

June 10, 2003
A prescription for Talibanisation?

The Shariat Bill is one thing (one can dwell on it from many angles) but the frivolities of billboard defacing, circus-bashing and the like resorted to as part of a calculated drive for religious purification are quite another.

Commitment to Islam and the values it stands for in the life of an individual and his group is one thing; bigotry that spawns fitna — quite another. Once unleashed, chaos goes out of control of those who plant it for whatever reason.

The spectre of Talibanisation has been haunting Pakistan for quite some time — even after the ouster of the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.

As preached and practised in Afghanistan, their brand of Islam has nothing to offer to the Muslims except backwardisation, denial of individual rights and freedom, and a retrogressive outlook that frowns on all cultural and artistic activity that makes life worth living.

Their attitude toward women was cruel and obnoxious, for they equated Islam with Afghanistan’s tribal culture and traditions. Pakistan has an entirely different cultural milieu. Elements of tribalism may be there, but the vast majority of the people have practised an Islam that is liberal in outlook and spirit and has a human face. That Islam enabled them to rule South Asia with spectacular success for over a thousand years.

In the process, the Muslims of South Asia interacted with the people of other faiths in a spirit of harmony and mutual respect, so that they were able to make monumental contributions to the subcontinent’s history and culture — the Taj Mahal, the Mughal miniature paintings and the illustrated Persian translations of the Hindu epic Mahabharat being just a few examples.

Pakistan today cannot turn its face away from this tolerant, dynamic and outward-looking culture and opt instead for a hidebound, inward-looking and exclusivist way of life that negates all that the Muslim scholars and institutions of higher learning stood for in Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba…

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government in the Frontier... has chosen to focus attention on non-issues like the dress code, "obscenity", cable operators, circuses and entertainment in general, regardless of its content.

In the NWFP, the people expected them to draw up plans for the province’s economic development, to be able to remove poverty, hunger and illiteracy. Instead, there is emphasis on all sorts of inanities...

Islam is not a controversial matter in Pakistan. It is the religion of the overwhelming majority of the people. In belief and practice, Pakistani Muslims are as good as anywhere in the world. They want to order their individual and collective lives according to its values. But for doing this they do not need baton-wielding religious police or vigilante groups to do the pushing and shoving. (Editorial, Dawn).


June 12, 2003
Islamists hit back at Musharraf’s outburst against Talibanisation

PESHAWAR: The Islamist-ruled local parliament in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province observed two minutes’ silence in protest over President Pervez Musharraf’s ti-rade against their orthodox Islamisation program, reports said.

General Musharraf has accused them of defying the people and Pakistan’s founders by trying to impose a Taliban style of Islam, giving Pakistan a negative fundamentalist image when it needed to be progressive and modern.

Musharraf brought his renewed outburst against the MMA to its heartland Tuesday, when he inaugurated a tunnel in NWFP’s Kohat district.

He said there was no room for Talibanisation in Pakistan and flayed attempts to order people to wear veils and discard western dress. "This reflects shallow-mindedness," Musharraf said.

"Pakistan has to decide whether we want a Talibanised version of Islam, or a civilised and progressive version of Islam in its true spirit.

"We do not want a backward and intolerant Islam. If we follow the intolerant version of Islam, we cannot progress. If we take wrong steps internally, we will reinforce our bad image."

The six-party hardline religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which rules NWFP, retorted defiantly that it would not be swayed from its Islamisation drive, for which it claims a popular mandate. (AFP).


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