| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| 'Shariah rule in Swat to further nurture sectarianism, war-lordship' |
| 2008-01-25 |
| Prominent human rights activist Hina Jillani on Thursday termed the NWFP government’s plans to promulgate regulation for law enforcement through Qazi courts in its Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) — which includes Swat, Dir and Chitral — contradictory to the 1973 Constitution and “nothing but further attempts by the military to instigate sectarianism and war-lordship”. Speaking to Daily Times on the development that surfaced overnight, Jillani — the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Punjab chairwoman and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders — said such plans were not devised to nip evil in the bud, “but to control territory in the name of Islam by nurturing sectarianism and creating religious differences through the Shariah”. Parallel judiciary: Jillani said the regulation would create a parallel judicial system — a step not allowed for in the Constitution. “This proposed judicial system is not related to the mainstream judicial system,” she said. “It is clearly contradictory to the 1973 Constitution, particularly Article 227.”” The HRCP, other organisations and individuals could attempt to pursue legal action over the matter, said Jillani, but questioned what that could achieve in light of the serious questions hanging over the independence of the judiciary. These measures will weaken the people of PATA politically and psychologically, she said. “It is time for the Pakistan Army to confess,” she said, “the militants it is fighting in PATA were once its partners. This is not a fight for Islam but for territorial control and political power perpetrated by warlords in the name of Islam, with the army aiming to assert its own control over them.” In this environment, these plans to enforce Islamic regulations are merely further efforts to strengthen a “judicial system of the rule of terror,” she said. “The Shariah seems to be a tool for certain elements to gain political power in the areas in the name of Islam, for which they have been extending partnerships to General Zia ul Haq, Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf.” |
| Posted by:Fred |