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May 5, 2006

Pakistan: Opposition Parties Demand Sharia Law

The Pakistan Daily Times states that the six-party alliance of Islamist groups, the MMA (Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal) has demanded today that Sharia law should be enforced in Pakistan. The group also affirmed its support to Iranians and Palestinians in their "battle" against the United States.

The leader of the MMA, Liaqat Baloch and the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rahman (pictured) were speaking at a conference on Sharia enforcement held in Quetta, and both criticised the Musharraf government.

Fazlur Rahman said that the Taliban government in Afghanistan was pro-Pakistan, but the current government there, run by Hamid Karzai, was pro-India.

The Musharraf has used the issues of decrees issued by religious institutions against the Islamist MMA politicians. He said the MMA would not defend itself in parliament, as it was far more dangerous when it takes to the streets. This was proved in February, when MMA demonstrations, ostensibly about the Danish cartoons, caused five people, including an eight-year old boy, to be killed.

Fazlur Rahman also criticised the government's operations in Balochistan, where there were "miitary actions against civilians". Balochistan province, in the southwest of Pakistan, is rich in oil and gas reserves, and there is a terror campaign of sabotage against the oil and gas companies in the province.

The demand for Sharia law in Pakistan is the reason why Musharraf's government should remain in power. The MMA have tried to destabilise the country and plunge it into being an Islamist state.

The track record of Maulana Fazlur Rahman is not a good one. He was banned from entering the United Arab Emirates in August last year, because his extremism had caused him to be blacklisted.

An ardent supporter of the Taliban, Rahman is leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Islamic Party of Religious Leaders or JUI). He is an ardent opponent of Musharaf's war on terror.

The BBC gave a profile of Maulana Fazlur Rahman in November 2002. Rahman, born in 1951, comes from a religious and political family from the southern district of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). His father had run the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, and when he died, Fazlur took over.

He has been elected to the National Assembly three times since 1988. While Benazir Bhutto was in power, he apparently supplied people from NWFP and Balochistan to join the Taliban in Afghanistan. He travelled through the Middle East to garner support and finances for his aims.

In October 2001, Rahman was charged with sedition for inciting people to try to over throw the Musharraf government, and to fight against the army. He was placed under house arrest.

Before he became head of the official opposition in the National Assembly, Rahman had been the general secretary of the MMA.

Back in October 2002 President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan expressed concern about Rahman's associates, the MMA, who gained political victory in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province Assembly. Karzai's fears appear to have been well-founded, as now the "Pakistan Taliban" have control of two agencies (districts) in the province, in North and South Waziristan.

In July 2005, the local government of North-West Frontier Province tried to introduce a sharia-based set of laws, which would be enforced by a "morality police", led by an Islamic official called a Mohtasib. The bill was passed unanimously by the NWFP Assembly, mainly populated by MMA members, on July 14.

In August, President Musharraf tried to stop this hisbah (accountability) bill being passed, according to the Guardian. The bill would have allowed the closure of cinemas and businesses at prayer time, with the morality police empowered to interrogate people about their relationships, and to arrest beggars.

The bill needed to be signed by the governor of NWFP before it could be passed into law. The Pakistan Supreme Court said that many of its clauses were "unconstitutional" in an August ruling. Finally the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared the Hizbah bill to be unconstitutional, and therefore illegal.

However, as we reported in earlier, the Pakistan Taliban managed to succeed in officially threatening clerics to introduce Sharia law to Waziristan in NWFP. On March 26 the Sharia Court in South Waziristan executed its first victim at Wana.SInce the hisbah bill was first mooted, more than 100 pro-government elders and politicians have been killed.

Journalists are excluded from NWFP, but it appears that the Taliban are firmly in control of much of North and South Waziristan agencies. Yesterday, the Guardian carried a report on how North Waziristan is now finding that its traditions are being replaced by the rule of Islamism. The mini-war between fought by the Pakistan Taliban against government forces appears to be funded from the Middle East.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 5, 2006 8:37 PM

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