Author: The Times, London &
PTI
Publication: The Statesman
Date: May 29, 2003
The Islamist alliance governing
the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan has introduced a Shariah Bill
in the provincial Assembly prescribing a strict code of conduct for Muslims.
Raising concerns on resurgence of
Taliban-style fundamentalism, the Bill introduced by the Muttahida Majlis
Amal proposes to give Shariah law precedence over secular provincial law
and stipulates that every Muslim will be bound by it.
The Assembly is also considering
the Hasba Bill to establish a Department of Vice and Virtue to supervise
implementation of Islamic code.
Introducing the Shariah Bill, NWFP
minister for law Mr Malik Zafar Azam said that the Bill "didnot contradict
the federal Constitution" and was drafted in accordance with the provincial
laws.
Assuring that the Bill would not
be applicable to non-Muslims, Mr Azam said their religious traditions would
be safeguarded.
All the courts in the province would
decide cases in accordance with Islamic teachings, Mr Azam said, adding
Shariah would be the supreme law in NWFP and the courts would interpret
the law in accordance with it.
Appropriate steps would be taken
for education and training in Shariah and Islamic jurisprudence would be
included in the syllabi of all the law colleges of the province, the minister
said.
Religious police in the region have
been granted authority to enforce harsh Islamic laws that have been modelled
on those imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Since the ouster of the hardline
regime, thousands of fundamentalists have crossed the Afghan border to
find refuge in NWFP. The area has now begun to look more like Afghanistan
under the Taliban than a part of Pakistan.
MLAs lathicharged, arrested Lahore
police lathicharged and detained about a dozen Opposition lawmakers for
the second day in a row today when they tried to force their way into the
Assembly as part of their agitation against President Pervez Musharraf's
constitutional amendments, adds another report.
