Pakistan Region Enacts Strict Islamic Law

by Muddassir Rizvi

Just three weeks after the NWFP assembly approved the enforcement of 'shariah' (Islamic law) in the province, the information ministry of Pakistan's federal government issued a circular last week declaring a "crusade against obscenity in print and electronic advertisements."

"The circular is aimed at ensuring that the advertisements in the country are reflective of our values, culture and religion," said an official at the information ministry.

The circular in fact enforces an earlier recommendation by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) -- a constitutional body that advises the government on Islamisation of laws, rules and regulations.

As early as January, the council criticized the rising "obscenity and vulgarity" in print and electronic advertisements, advising the government to take stern action against advertising agencies that promote these but did not give a definition of constitutes obscene and vulgar material.

In fact, the CII, added information ministry officials, advertising agencies that offer young women lucrative careers in modelling are leading them into "lives of sin."

This has rung alarm bells in the advertising industry, where some now say they fear whimsical action in the name of Islam -- a norm during the days of dictator Gen. Zia ul Haq who strengthened his 11-year rule by patronizing the religious groups.

"They don't tolerate bare arms of women in advertisements, but allow men to take showers as part of soap promotion. Their definition of vulgarity is meant to restrict women's expression," retorted a business development manager at an advertising agency, requesting not to be named.

Other critics say that such warnings of a "crusade against obscenity" are not needed in a country where ironclad censors have been in place since the time of General Zia.

Massod Hasan, who writes on entertainment industry issues, says that state-run Pakistan Television -- which can be seen in more than 90 percent of the country -- has a censor board with steel walls. "Anything this is remotely suggestive doesn't get through. It's been like that for years," he said.

But the concern goes beyond the industry affected by the anti-obscenity campaign. Recalling the changes that the NWFP government -- led by the six-party alliance of religious parties called Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) -- has put into place, some see this as just the latest signs of a bigger trend reflective of the rise of religious parties, one that could slowly undercut people's rights.

Indeed, conservative lobbies have asserted themselves in state decision-making after the 2002 elections, the first polls held after the 1999 coup that brought President Gen. Pervez Musharraf into power.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), a research and advocacy group that works to prevent conflicts, the rise of the alliance of religious parties threatens civil liberties, freedom of expression, legal reforms and religious tolerance in Pakistan.

In fact, the group in one of its recent reports says that the military and the right-wingers tend to be giving each other space.

"Since 1999, the government has demonstrated neither the will nor intent to pursue domestic policies that are opposed by the mullahs such as the 'madrasah' religious seminaries registration or change in discriminatory Islamic laws," said Dr. Samina Ahmed, who heads ICG's South Asia project based in Islamabad.

"The perpetual threat of war with India over Kashmir also brings the 'mullah' and the military together," added Dr. Ahmed, who has also taught at Harvard University in the United States.

The MMA holds power in two provinces, directly in NWFP and as a member of the ruling coalition in Balochistan province. At the federal level, the MMA emerged as the third largest party and now staking a claim to be the official opposition with the support of smaller parties.

In NWFP, one of the first actions taken by the MMA government was a crackdown on pornographic videos, and cinemas screening what it said were vulgar movies and "immoral" billboards.

Thousands of videocassettes and compact discs collected from almost 400 shops in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, were burnt sometime ago -- the police said they were "un-Islamic" movies.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and other rights groups blasted the government squeeze on the video and CD business as non-essential.

Afrasiab Khattak, who heads the rights commission, believes that the MMA is indulging in the same experiment that was tried but failed in Afghanistan. "It is an excess against the people to impose a ban on information resources, because in that case the people of this area (NWFP) would lag behind the people of other areas in the field of information," he added.

Ironically, these actions took place before the NWFP Assembly formally approved the 'shariah' in late March. Earlier, MMA activists had forced shopkeepers in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to observe Friday as the day off instead of the official Sunday.

Media reports also said that a provincial minister, with his staff, barged into the house of a woman near Peshawar to check on her marriage certificate. The Aurat Foundation, a woman's rights group, called it a sign of troubling times in the future.

Still, the 'shariah' act approved by the NWFP Assembly looks benign and does not include many of the steps feared by rights activists, like compulsory headscarves for schoolgirls and the abolition of co-education.

It is quiet on some areas that the MMA supporters expected from their government, particularly on the issue of interest-free banking.

A spokesman for NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani told IPS that Islam's teachings will be the supreme law in all institutions coming under the government's jurisdiction. "Not a single law in the province will be un-Islamic," he said.

Meantime, the ICG says Islamabad should make sure that the MMA government does not pursue policies that violate basic constitutional rights. "The federal government must override any provincial legislation that restricts women's participation in public life or denies them education and employment opportunities," said the ICG report.