Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
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1 <strong>Frontline</strong> <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong><br />
Non-governmental organizations working in the field of female<br />
education were particularly targeted by the mullahs, who often<br />
accused them of spreading ‘obscenity’. ‘We feel very vulnerable,’<br />
said Marium Bibi, a tribal woman who had provoked the wrath of<br />
the <strong>Islam</strong>ic zealots by opening schools for girls in remote villages.<br />
Her organization, Khewndo Khor (Sisters’ House), ran more than<br />
forty schools in the most conservative parts of the province. One of its<br />
offices was bombed after Bibi refused to close down the schools.<br />
In July 2005, the North West Frontier Province provincial assembly<br />
passed a controversial hisba (accountability) law, which envisaged<br />
setting up a watchdog body to ensure people respected calls to<br />
prayer, did not engage in commerce at the time of Friday prayers<br />
and that unrelated men and women did not appear in public places<br />
together. <strong>The</strong> law also prohibited singing and dancing. Reminiscent<br />
of the infamous Department of Vice and Virtue, the law proposed<br />
the appointment of a mohatasib (one who holds others accountable)<br />
to monitor the conduct of the populace so that it was in accordance<br />
with <strong>Islam</strong>ic tenets. <strong>The</strong> actions taken by the mohatasib, chosen from<br />
among the top clerics, could not be challenged in any court of law.<br />
He had the powers of the judges of the High Court to punish anyone<br />
obstructing his authority. He was also to monitor the media to ensure<br />
that they were ‘useful for the promotion of <strong>Islam</strong>ic values’. Spying<br />
and anonymous denunciation were encouraged. Any citizen could<br />
complain to the Mohatasib against any other person for not observing<br />
‘<strong>Islam</strong>ic values’. It was clearly a step towards Talibanization and the<br />
establishment of religious fascism. 19 <strong>The</strong> enactment of the law was<br />
stopped after a ruling by the Supreme Court of <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong> declared that<br />
it violated the constitution. But the <strong>Islam</strong>ic government appeared<br />
determined to enforce it with some changes. 20<br />
<strong>The</strong> mullahs were encouraged by Musharraf’s policy of<br />
accommodation of the religious right and his backtracking on<br />
his pledge to regulate madrasas, most of which were run by MMA<br />
component parties. His move to marginalize liberal political forces<br />
gave the <strong>Islam</strong>ists tremendous space to carry out their agenda. A weak<br />
civilian set-up was unable to fight Musharraf’s battle, in Parliament as<br />
well as in public. Most of the ruling party members were ideologically<br />
much closer to the MMA and considered it their natural ally. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
were reluctant to fight for Musharraf’s reform agenda and his so-called<br />
‘enlightened moderation’.<br />
It was not a great surprise when President Musharraf, on 30