Naeem Shakir

(Ed. Note. The author is an advocate of the High Court and Chairperson of Idara e Amn o Insaf—Committee for Justice & Peace in Lahore.)

The most pressing problem facing Pakistan is the use of religion for vested interests and political gain. However during the past 59 years of its existence, that is precisely what Pakistani establishments have done. Throughout the years, undemocratic and illegitimate rulers have sought support from the religious bogey to retain their power. Some of them believe they have sole proprietorship over ‘the truth’ and anyone who does not agree is seriously penalized or simply eliminated. They insist on reading history with glasses that are tainted with religious and sectarian bias and this baneful sentiment has caused socio-religious intolerance that has gone beyond proportions.

Why are we caught up in a national debate on how to treat our women who comprise almost 50% of our population? They are our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. But we are yet not one on how to treat them. It seems so pathetic. The poor electorate has painfully watched how the ‘ruling party’ headed by the military President has played over the women’s issue with the establishment’s much loved bogey—the political cleric of the country.

The debate that was facilitated by civil society and received much attention from the national media was whether the Hodood Laws—promulgated by the military ruler general Zia ul Haq in the name of religion—had brought justice to people especially women; or else have the Laws subjected them to shame, torture and sub-human treatment? Whether these laws were in concurrence with the spirit of Islam as enunciated in the Quran and Sunnah? Whether these Ordinances have a status of divine law or man-made laws as others in the statute book and thus amenable to change? And whether it was justifiable to impose punishments such as stoning to death, amputation of hands and feet and whipping under the socio-economic conditions of our people today?

Flawed Piece of Legislation

There has been a consensus at national level that the law is a flawed piece of legislation utterly and totally discriminatory of women. It was on this ground that the Islamic Ideology Council recommended that the law be changed. However three Commissions at federal level recommended that these Ordinances be repealed because the legal lacunae and anomalies involved were so great as to defeat any attempt at amending the law. Thus there was only one alternative: The law must be repealed.

Recognizing that countless women are languishing in jail on account of the rigours of this law and instead of bringing justice to them it had only caused oppression to them and ruined their lives, on July 17, 2006, the President promulgated a new law—The Women’s Rights Protection Ordinance. Under this law, women were entitled to bail after going through due process. These women had been victims of rape but had been accused of adultery because they had failed to provide evidence through ‘at least four Muslim, adult, males about whom the court is satisfied, having regard to the requirements of ‘tazkiyah al-shahood’—truthful persons who abstain from major sins—as eye witnesses of the act of penetration, necessary to the offence’. How treacherous and preposterous to expect from a victim to produce such an evidence to prove her innocence.

Here, it is also noteworthy that such provisions for obvious reasons would render the testimony of a non-Muslim of secondary evidentiary value, as he or she cannot stand the test of such a standard of evidence. They however are very much subjected to this religiously sectarian legislation, which supposedly was meant to facilitate Muslims to lead lives according to the injunctions of Islam. Is it not a fact that the way our women are subjected to rape, gang rape, honor killing and many other oppressive forms under traditions and customs reflect a society still living in a medieval age? And adding insult to injury the politically motivated clerics are still adamant to retain such oppressive and unjust laws in the statute book.

The Military-Mullah Alliance

However these clerics never raised their voice—or made even a murmur—when Safia Bibi was convicted of adultery, because she was unable to identify her rapist due to her blindness. Safia had been working as a housemaid when her master raped her. This tragedy was a cause for all prudent people to hang their heads in shame. Progressive forces and especially women organizations have been in the forefront for a long time now, to bring about an end to these black laws. The mullah however continues to hold the nation hostage in the name of Islam, notwithstanding that even the father of the nation denounced the theocratic approach of the mullah. The Qaide Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared the question ‘absurd’ when a journalist asked whether the new state would be of a theocratic nature. He was not one to compromise with political clerics—as the present government is doing in the name of modern enlightenment.

In my opinion, the government’s decision to refer the matter back to the ‘Ulma Committee’ was deliberately in bad faith because after the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee, the draft legislation should have been sent to the Assembly. The government evidently was not serious about this important issue. Thus the main issue regarding the repeal of Hodood laws stands unresolved. This is because it seems the present government does not have the courage to distance itself from its favourite lobby, the political clerics. In fact, it is political legitimacy that President Musharraf seeks from them for it was they who supported him regarding the 70^th constitutional amendment that legalized the duel offices of the President—Chief of Army staff and President of Pakistan.

The manner in which the government dragged its feet in passing the Women Protection Bill in Parliament should leave no one in doubt that neither is it consistent in its much talked about policy of modern enlightenment nor is it earnest in abandoning its policy of appeasing the religious lobby. Therefore, the progressive and democratic forces in Pakistan must come forward in their political struggle to bring all black laws to an end and expose the military-mullah alliance over an issue that concerns half our nation.