Nizam e Adl-Badl: Two views
Shireen M Mazari
Hysteria, intolerance and ignorance are certainly not solely the hallmark of the Taliban, as I discovered last week when I defended the actual Nizam-e-Adl Regulation on television in terms of its content. Immediately, choice abuses – ranging from comments about by girth to the need for me to seek employment in Swat – were unleashed through the internet by the ignorant, hysterical and intolerant self-appointed "liberals". It was all these apologists for western "secularism" could do to stop themselves from actually telling my spouse that I was wajib-ul-qatl in their "liberal" eyes! But then I have a thick political skin, having survived the Left-JI alliance at Quaid-i-Azam University for 16 years!
More important, I firmly believe that there is nothing adverse in the Adl Regulation that was first agreed to in 1994 and then again in 1999, but was never implemented, and to which the ANP has only made two very positive additions. The first is section B and C in Article 1 providing for the Supreme Court and High Court benches; and, the second are Article 8 and 10 dealing with timelines for FIR registrations, challan presentations and court decisions. Beyond these, there is nothing new or discriminatory relating to women. Article 14:2 protects the rights of non-Muslims. So there is nothing that has been included in this at the behest of the TTP.
Also, Schedule I gives a list of 94 laws of Pakistan that remain in force within this Adl Regulation, while offences in Schedule III, dealing with offences punishable under the Pakistan Penal Code and "pertaining to deviations of licenses and permits under relevant laws applicable to the said area, are to be the exclusive purview of Executive Magistrates. Appointments for Illaqa Qazis are also to be made from judicial officers of NWFP.
Dr Maleeha Lodhi
The Swat deal signifies several things all at once. First and foremost it represents a retreat for Jinnah's Pakistan. Whatever the apologists of the deal may claim, it is the very antithesis of the vision and ideals inspired by the country's founder, the core of which was a modern, unified Muslim state, not one fragmented along obscurantist and sectarian lines. Several times during and after the struggle for freedom, the Quaid-e-Azam emphatically ruled out anything resembling a throwback to obscurantism or any variant of theocracy. His leadership rested on principle and according to one of his biographers, he preferred "political wilderness to playing to the gallery".
The agreement forged between the ANP government and Sufi Mohammed, head of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), on February 16 was effected through a presidential edict on April 13, and endorsed by a hastily contrived parliamentary resolution. This followed months of policy chaos, on again, off again peace accords and stop-go military operations, accompanied by rising violence and the virtual collapse of any civil administration in Swat. Indeed this backdrop of rudderless, directionless rule at the centre reinforced the state of national disarray and created the conditions for the eventual Swat surrender.
Hysteria, intolerance and ignorance are certainly not solely the hallmark of the Taliban, as I discovered last week when I defended the actual Nizam-e-Adl Regulation on television in terms of its content. Immediately, choice abuses – ranging from comments about by girth to the need for me to seek employment in Swat – were unleashed through the internet by the ignorant, hysterical and intolerant self-appointed "liberals". It was all these apologists for western "secularism" could do to stop themselves from actually telling my spouse that I was wajib-ul-qatl in their "liberal" eyes! But then I have a thick political skin, having survived the Left-JI alliance at Quaid-i-Azam University for 16 years!
More important, I firmly believe that there is nothing adverse in the Adl Regulation that was first agreed to in 1994 and then again in 1999, but was never implemented, and to which the ANP has only made two very positive additions. The first is section B and C in Article 1 providing for the Supreme Court and High Court benches; and, the second are Article 8 and 10 dealing with timelines for FIR registrations, challan presentations and court decisions. Beyond these, there is nothing new or discriminatory relating to women. Article 14:2 protects the rights of non-Muslims. So there is nothing that has been included in this at the behest of the TTP.
Also, Schedule I gives a list of 94 laws of Pakistan that remain in force within this Adl Regulation, while offences in Schedule III, dealing with offences punishable under the Pakistan Penal Code and "pertaining to deviations of licenses and permits under relevant laws applicable to the said area, are to be the exclusive purview of Executive Magistrates. Appointments for Illaqa Qazis are also to be made from judicial officers of NWFP.
Dr Maleeha Lodhi
The Swat deal signifies several things all at once. First and foremost it represents a retreat for Jinnah's Pakistan. Whatever the apologists of the deal may claim, it is the very antithesis of the vision and ideals inspired by the country's founder, the core of which was a modern, unified Muslim state, not one fragmented along obscurantist and sectarian lines. Several times during and after the struggle for freedom, the Quaid-e-Azam emphatically ruled out anything resembling a throwback to obscurantism or any variant of theocracy. His leadership rested on principle and according to one of his biographers, he preferred "political wilderness to playing to the gallery".
The agreement forged between the ANP government and Sufi Mohammed, head of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), on February 16 was effected through a presidential edict on April 13, and endorsed by a hastily contrived parliamentary resolution. This followed months of policy chaos, on again, off again peace accords and stop-go military operations, accompanied by rising violence and the virtual collapse of any civil administration in Swat. Indeed this backdrop of rudderless, directionless rule at the centre reinforced the state of national disarray and created the conditions for the eventual Swat surrender.
posted by temporal at 4/22/2009
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