PAKISTAN: ‘Un-Islamic’ Practices Take Priority over Governance

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Christopher Nadeem

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 16 2003 (IPS) - Unusually quiet new year celebrations, a ban of playing music in public transport and raids on cinemas are signs that the religious political parties that run this city have been busy at work three months after they won in the October general elections.

The alliance of six Islamic parties, which goes by the name of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), won majority seats in the assembly of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders Afghanistan and whose capital is Peshawar.

The MMA’s strong performance also made it a key force in the formation of the central government in Islamabad, giving it much more power than it has had before in this mainly Muslim country.

A string of its initial moves in NWFP have had to do changes in practices the parties have always seen as ”un-Islamic’.

On Jan. 9, the new chief minister, Akram Khan Durrani, made clear the government’s priorities. "Promulgation of Islamic laws in NWFP is our first priority. We shall gradually move towards enforcement of ‘shariah’ not only in NWFP but in the entire country," he said.

However, many residents say what they need is better governance, not religious enforcement.

"The MMA is fooling the public. It is diverting people’s attention from real issues by raising trivial issues,” said Hussain Shah, a student at the University of Peshawar. ”Such steps are hardly going to resolve the vital problems of law and order or unemployment, or to mitigate the sufferings of the common man."

In his maiden speech soon after taking oath, Durrani announced a ban on alcohol, and music playing in the public transport.

Next came the raids on cinemas and video shops. Authorities removed billboards and posters from the cinema houses and confiscated cassettes and compact discs that they said contained pornographic material. Several people were arrested on the charges of spreading vulgarity.

On another day, authorities conducted an operation in the Karkhano Market, where foreign-made smuggled goods are sold, to confiscate compact discs and drugs used for sex stimulation and later ignited them in a public park.

To some critics, the MMA is doing everything it can to please its supporters, sometimes at the cost of embarrassing the federal government. For instance, in stark contrast to the Punjab government’s recent announcement of free education in government schools up to matriculation level, the MMA government in NWFP was raiding cinema houses.

"The MMA government is still in the process of finding its way. It has yet to come up with a strategy to run the government smoothly,” said Nasir Ali, a teacher at the economics department of the University of Peshawar. ”Whatever little they have done so far is basically to please its voters.”

The MMA’s ‘popularity’ drive, as well is its pledges to stick to its election manifesto, are not even being done sincerely, say opposition parties that are eager to see it fall.

"They are not (even) serious (in that). An example is the ban on alcohol. Alcohol is already banned in the country and the government was serious it should have cancelled the licenses," said Haji Mohammad Adeel, former provincial minister and a leader of Awami National Party (ANP).

During the election campaign, Adeel adds, the religious leaders promised that they would change the ruling style by setting up offices in mosques and taking austerity measures, but this has not been the case.

"In fact it is the other way around. They ran their campaign on bicycles and now they are sitting in latest luxury cars," he added sarcastically.

An MMA leader kicked off a controversy in the province recently by demanding that medium of teaching in educational institutions be made Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.

While no policy has yet been formulated on this, the chief minister has directed that all official summaries for him be prepared in Urdu, something new for a bureaucracy that is used to doing official paperwork in English.

"Now many officials spend a lot of time finding Urdu words for official terms that have been in use for decades," informed an official who did not want to be named.

The MMA’s other election pledges ranged from kicking out U.S. soldiers operating in Pakistani territory to go after the remnants of the Taliban, introducing interest-free banking, wiping out vulgarity and obscenity and ending co-education.

MMA leaders have been repeatedly said that the Islamic parties would not tolerate U.S. forces’ activities in Pakistan, a major U.S. ally in its ‘war against terrorism’. A resolution passed by the NWFP assembly assailed U.S. bombing in Pakistani territory along the border with Afghanistan earlier this month.

The provincial assembly also passed a resolution calling for an interest-free banking system, in keeping with Islamic practice.

Yet another resolution, introduced and passed primarily to gain popularity – but likely to cost the province heavily – was the recommendation to the provincial government to abolish property taxes, arms’ license fees and motor vehicle taxes.

Taking out these taxes would not only deprive the NWFP government of funding from international lending agencies, but would make it difficult for the government to survive. NWFP has a narrow tax base and needs large doses of aid and loans.

"Though these resolutions are not binding and won’t have any impact as such, they reflect mood of the MMA government. But these moves also show that there is a hell of a difference between running a ‘madrasah’ (seminary) and running a province. The MMA must learn this fast," said Nasir.

Meantime, the MMA is gearing up for its next priority – organising protest rallies given the expected U.S. attack on Iraq. If the Pakistani government backs Washington against Iraq, religious leaders say they will launch a civil disobedience movement. (END/IPS/AP/IP/CR/NY/JS/03)

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