Asia Times: Islamic groups turn back Musharraf's reforms


	May 23, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Islamic groups turn back Musharraf's reforms
By Nadeem Iqbal

ISLAMABAD - After forcing Pakistan's military regime to subordinate human rights to religion, hardline Islamic groups are rallying the people behind their campaign to take the nation back in time.

Political analysts and media commentators warned military ruler Pervez Musharraf that his handling of the stand-off with the radicals would decide the fate of his ambitious reform plan for Pakistan.

Religious conservatives exulted over the mixed response to their countrywide shutdown call late last week to press the military government to incorporate Islamic principles in the constitution, ban citizen's groups and keep hands off Islamic schools. A coalition of religious parties that called the May 19 public protest claimed this had shown that Pakistanis disapproved the bid by the ''NGO (non-governmental organization) mafia in the government to rob the country of its Islamic identity''.

In a statement from Lahore, prominent Muslim cleric Shah Ahmad Noorani warned the government to ''follow Islam rather than becoming a tool in the hands of anti-Islam forces.'' Political observers said they expect calls like this to become shriller in coming days after Musharraf backed off from a decision last month to modify the controversial anti-blasphemy law. They said the military ruler had given a handle to Islamic parties who also seemed to be winning over the moderate political formations in their anti-government campaign.

Although Musharraf's undoing of his decision to modify the anti-blasphemy law was slammed by media commentators and rights bodies, Pakistani political parties were wary of criticizing the turnabout.

Speaking at a human rights conference in April, the military ruler had announced a change in the rule for complaining against those suspected of blasphemy, a crime carrying the death penalty. This would have required a probe by senior district administration officials before a criminal charge could be registered.

Rights groups have long complained that the present rule empowering a junior police official to register cases has been heavily abused to harass religious minorities, specially Christians. Christian leaders want the law, that was introduced by former army ruler Zia ul Haq two decades ago, to be abolished.

But less than a month after the April 21 announcement that was greeted by rights groups, Musharraf yielded to the vociferous protests by Islamic parties. Denying that the government wanted to modify the blasphemy law, Musharraf declared: ''Since the Ulema (priests) and the people are unanimous in their stance, the government has decided to restore the previous procedure.'' This retains the rule which requires the police to arrest anyone accused of blasphemy even before investigating the charge.

Under the law, ''whosoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly defies the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine.''

Hundreds of cases are registered against non-Muslims every year. Local religious leaders are seen to influence convictions that are common by the lower courts, though the accused are invariably freed by higher courts for lack of evidence.

The threat to judicial independence in such cases was obvious in the October 1997 killing of a Lahore High Court judge, who was part of a judicial bench that had acquitted two Christians convicted of blasphemy by a lower court.

Two years ago, the former Bishop of Faisalabad, John Joseph, killed himself in front of a lower court in Punjab province to protest the death sentence awarded by the court to a Christian on a blasphemy charge.

Although no death penalty has been confirmed by a higher court, according to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates, 500 cases are pending in different courts until December 1994.

The commission rapped the military regime for retreating before Islamic parties. ''It won't take long for the hollowness of the regime's commitment to human rights and human dignity to show,'' said a commission press statement.

Media commentators criticized Musharraf for not trying to get the people on his side in taking on the religious fanatics. ''If there was conviction in its move, the government would not have beaten such a clumsy retreat. It made no effort to appeal to the good sense of the people. It could demonstrate that the object was not remotely to be soft on blasphemers, only to be just to like non-blasphemers,'' said writer Aziz Siddiqui in the English language daily, The Dawn.

Although no one said so explicitly, the government's retreat was seen as countering a perception promoted by the religious groups that Musharraf was out to please the West. This was also why, having tasted victory, the religious groups are pushing ahead with a demand to ban NGOs they accused of espousing causes they termed anti-Islamic. Islamic parties were angered especially by an NGO campaign for women's rights. The Mill Yekhjehti Council - the coalition that called the May 19 protest - had criticized the proposed increase in women's representation in local elected bodies. A leading NGO was rapped for being anti-Islamic when it issued a document based on Pakistan's commitments made at the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women.

The religious parties also wanted Musharraf to include Islamic provisions in the Constitution, stop regulating deen madaris (Islamic religious schools), give up joint electorates and revert to the practice of making Fridays the religious day off. Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made Sunday the weekly holiday.

Musharraf's government has been trying to ensure that deen madaris prepare students for the mainstream education system and not for religious violence. It has also come under fire for its proposal to stop dividing voters on religious lines.

(Inter Press Service)

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�1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

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