Human Rights Groups Slam Sharif

Since Friday Aug 28 when Pakistani prime minister Nawaz
Sharif in a televised speech announced that his government would
"make the Holy Quran and Sunnah (Islamic traditions) the supreme
law of Pakistan", advertisements in leading newspapers and frequently
aired 'public service messages' on the electronic media have been used
to hammer home his message.

"Let us join hands to make Pakistan a strong and just society free of
'zulm' (cruelty) & 'na-insafi'' (injustice)," reads the text of one such
advertisement, inviting suggestions and queries over fax, phone, post
and even email .

The prime minister's latest move, seen almost universally as an
attempt by a floundering government to consolidate power, has been
blasted publicly even by religious organisations.

However, religious parties like the Jamat-e-Islami may accept the bill
conditionally, if Sharif agrees not to make the amendment to Article
239 of the Constitution, which would result in an increase of
governmental powers.

Non-government organisations and human rights groups have,
meanwhile, made it clear that they will not accept the proposed 15th
Amendment to the Constitution in any form.

"The proposed measure is the most blatant and shameful attempt to
date to exploit religion for petty political gain. Proceeding from a
subjective and distorted interpretation of Islam, the Bill seeks to
destroy the Constitutional basis of the state and divert the people from
a democratic creed," read a press statement issued from Islamabad on
Friday by 16 NGOs.

"Women are often the first victims of such moves to establish
undemocratic policies, norms and institutions," comments sociologist
Fareeda Shaheed, a member of the Shirkat Gah collective, a womens
resource centre.

"We've seen it happen under Zia," she adds, referring to Gen. Ziaul
Haq who took over power in a military coup in 1977, and stayed in
power till his death in a mysterious plane crash in 1988. Sharif is
widely seen as a protégé of the late General, who blatantly used
religion to try and justify his illegal stint in power.

"Throughout Zia's time, women were made into symbols of identity,
national and religious, and oppressed on these grounds," explains
Shaheed.

She fears that the country may be heading towards another referendum
of the kind held by Ziaul Haq in the 1980s, in which people were
asked to choose between Islam (and thus the General who equated
himself with the religion) and other systems.

"It is simply a decoy by the Government to divert attention from its
own failure in protecting the security of the country," declared the
Joint Action Committee for Peoples Rights at a press conference in
Lahore on Monday.

JAC, a conglomeration of 35 NGOs and labour groups, sees the
proposed Amendment as a direct threat to the very existence of the
state. "It strikes at federal principles by letting the federation assume
full and unshared responsibility for conceiving and enforcing what it
considers is right and prohibiting what it decides is wrong according
to its own perceptions of the principles of Islam."

"The federal government," explains Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan director I.A. Rehman, a well known journalist, "would not
only define Shariah but also what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'"

"The federal government would be able to pass any directive
regulating the lives of the people and 'state-functionaries'", explains
Rehman, ''including members of the superior
judiciary. Those not complying with these directives can be either
lynched or dismissed from their offices."

"Every ruler in Pakistan who has been in trouble has tried to use Islam
to save himself, and it has never worked. We don't need Nawaz Sharif
to tell us how to be good Muslims, especially when his real attempt is
to secure his own power,'' argues Tahira, a college student:

The opposition to Sharif's move also stems from the perception that
the bill, if passed, would undermine the Parliament by reducing the
special importance given to amendments of the Constitution, which the
government now proposes should be made through a simple majority,
as opposed to the two-thirds majority currently required.

"The government's blatant attempt at controlling all power is clear --
the 'centre', in fact, means the leader of the ruling party, whose wishes
his party members are bound to conform to because of the 14th
amendment (bulldozed through last year) on pain of losing their
seats," says lawyer Asma Jahangir, the country's best known human
rights activist.

She adds scathingly, "It strikes at the judiciary itself, leading the way
towards controlling it and setting up a tailor-made jucidiary which will
comply with the prime minister and president's wishes and whims."

The prime minister's criticism of the judiciary in his televised
address, the blatant desire to control the judiciary, the electoral
process and the government functionaries, and the clause that
prohibits the judiciary from interfering in the actions of the
government are ominous, to say the least, say human rights activists.

"The law minister's attempts to reassure the people of Pakistan that
the proposed bill will not impinge upon the rights of women and
minorities is a laugh," says JAC convenor Shahtaj Qizilbash.

"He has no way of making such an assurance. We particularly warn
the women and religious minorities of Pakistan to resist this
Amendment, for its passage will only bring harder days for them."

The proposed amendent has been blasted by religious minorities, who
point out that they are already underprivileged and deprived. ''The
constitutional guarantees of equality to all citizens give us no
protection,'' says Joseph Francis, General Secretary of the Pakistan
Christian National Party.

He points to an ominous news report dated August 13, according to
which President Rafiq Tarrar, a visibly right-wing nominee of Sharif's,
has initiated a crackdown against religious minorities.

The news report, which has not been contridicated, says that a
Presidential directive has ordered the removal of religious minorities
from key official posts.

"We have few people in key posts anyway", argues Francis, pointing
to the recent non-confirmation of Sindh High Court judge M.L.
Shahani, whose Muslim colleagues were confirmed.

"Since 1965, when Justice R.A. Cornelius was Chief Justice of
Pakistan, Shahani was the first Christian to make it as a high court
judge," explains Francis. "And now he has been brushed aside."

Chief Justice Cornelius, also a former law minister, who died a few
years ago, was among those who drafted the 1962 Constitution of
Pakistan.

The Womens Action Forum, a lobby group comprising several
womens organisations, agrees. "The proposed Amendment will
further encourage sectarian conflicts and uncertainties in the legal
system," says Nighat Said Khan, a WAF spokeswoman.

"It is precisely the use of religion for political purposes that has
fragmented society and led to intolerance, sectarian divisions and
extreme violence in Pakistan," she adds.