Bhutto irked by Taliban-style Sharia in NWFP

Former premier Benazir Bhutto yesterday expressed concern over the passage of a Taliban-style bill by the assembly of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), saying that the purpose of the new law is to interfere with individual freedoms of the people.

The NWFP assembly passed the highly controversial bill on Monday that created a Vice and Virtue Department along the lines of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime. The package of Islamic laws aims to ban obscenity, and bring the province's education and financial systems in line with Sharia or the strict observance of Islamic law.

People would have to close shops, businesses and offices at prayer time, and are being discouraged from wearing western clothes. Schools have already been told to replace a uniform of shirt and trousers with the traditional dress of shalwar/kameez (baggy trousers/long shirt). Girls students have been told to cover their heads at school.

Pakistan rights activists and liberal and educated people have been shaken by the developments in the NWFP which are likely to heighten the country's political risk for international investors and become a major image problem, casting a shadow on the country's slowly improving investment climate, especially efforts to attract the western capital to Pakistan.

Bhutto, who leads her Pakistan People's Party from exile, said the passage of the Taliban Bill was the logical conclusion of the "irrational policies" of the government and its attempts to marginalise the mainstream and popular leadership of the country.

"Democracy was destabilised in 1996 with the ouster of the democratic government of the PPP by establishment hardliners who opposed the PPP policies to build a moderate and respected country where people prospered with freedom and free markets," she said.

She alleged that her brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto was killed to overthrow the PPP government and allow the Taliban to take over all of Afghanistan and pave the way for establishment of Al Qaida headquarters.

The policies pursued since the dismissal of the PPP government had led to the rise of religious parties in the country, she said adding that the PPP was reluctant to enter into a government with the six-party Islamic alliance of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal because it knew that sooner or later there would be a difference of opinion on issues such as the Vice and Virtue Bill as well as gender and other issues.

The rise of the religious parties was the result of the politics of manipulation practiced by the Musharraf regime, Bhutto said.

"This was done to frighten Washington and its allies into supporting the dictatorship in the country.

Bhutto said the timing of the Taliban Bill was significant."It came on the eve of General Musharraf's visit to Camp David. It also coincided with the joint opposition on the Legal Framework Order, which was gathering momentum. The LFO and the Taliban Bill were two separate issues. While the PPP opposed the Taliban Bill, it supported a joint opposition on the issue of the LFO and other parliamentary matters of mutual concern to the Opposition."

Analysts say that the recent bill passed in the NWFP assembly drive a a wedge between the opposition parties. At the same time the central government has no easy way out of the NWFP crisis, which is further complicating its attempt to resolve the differences with the opposition parties over the controversial Legal Framework Order.

Meanwhile, a PPP spokesperson said that the party did not vote for the Sharia bill in the NWFP assembly." The Pakistan Peoples Party believes that Shariat and the Sharia Bill are two separate things and the two should not be confused with one another," the spokesperson said." Shariat is understood to be the law of God. But bills in the name of Shariat presented in different houses from time to time are no more than the exploitation of what is purported to be law of God, for political purposes."

The party believes that the Constitution is quite clear on the subject that no law is to be enacted against the injunctions of Islam.

According to pres reports, the Frontier PPP Parliamentary Party voted for the so-called Sharia Bill in the Frontier Assembly on June 2.

"This is not the correct position," the party spoeksperson said. "The correct and factual position is that the Frontier PPP Parliamentary Party did not vote for the Sharia Bill in the Frontier Assembly. "The Frontier PPP Parliamentary Party had taken the position that in view of the Constitutional position and the fact that a Sharia Bill had already been passed by the National Assembly in 1991, no new enactment was necessary.