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| India-Pakistan |
| J&K Muslims now under ambit of laws based on Shariat |
| 2007-02-10 |
| JAMMU/SRINAGAR: In a move aimed at mainstreaming personal laws governing Muslims in J&K with those followed by Muslims in the rest of India, the lower House of the state Assembly on Friday passed a Bill seeking to apply provisions of the Shariat to Muslims of the state. The Bill seeks to replace an earlier code that had been in force since Maharaja PratapÂ’s era which contained several local traditions. It now erases those provisions, seeking to bring Kashmiri Muslims under the ambit of Shariat-based laws that were penned with the Arab interpretation of how Muslims should run their lives and codes on weddings, divorce and sexuality. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Bill was moved by leader of Opposition and former National Conference minister Abdul Rahim Rather and adopted unanimously. The Bill will now go to the upper House where it is likely to be taken up on February 14. "This bill will create uniformity. The law is applicable in other states and will now be made valid in Jammu & Kashmir. The customary laws, which were applicable, used to create contradictions," Rather told TOI. It erases anomalies with the Shariat on issues like property inheritance for daughters in Kashmiri villages. Under customary laws in the countryÂ’s only Muslim-majority state, daughters werenÂ’t entitled to it, but the new Bill gives them inheritance rights. "The law will change gender equations because it is applicable to inheritance, transfer of property and succession and guardianship. ItÂ’s not as if the entire Shariat is being introduced, like chopping of hands or such punishment. It does not pertain to criminal matter," Rather clarified. He said J&K High Court had asked the Assembly in 2004 to find a way out of the contradictions in the law and thatÂ’s what prompted him to bring the Bill. |
| Posted by:john |
| #4 Darn it, john! It was a good idea, until it crashed headlong into reality! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-02-10 21:30 |
| #3 First... No law passed by the Indian parliament applies to Jammu and Kashmir unless it is also passed by the J+K state legislature. This includes taxes. They have representation without taxation. Their MPs sit in the Indian parliament and are appointed federal cabinet ministers. No Indian citizen who is not a Kashmiri native may own land or settle in Jammu and Kashmir. These rights are granted by article 370 of the Indian constitution. You don't have to guess that Pandit Nehru, India's first PM was a Kashmiri. Bear that in mind the next time you read about people demanding 'autonomy' for Kashmir. Now... India has a uniform criminal code. It does not have a uniform civil code however. While the Indian constitution calls on the parliament to enact a uniform civil law, it has never done so. Muslims, Christians, Parsees and Jews have their own personal laws that apply to marriage, divorce etc. The muslims are governed by sharia. They have resisted having the secular Indian laws being applied to themselves |
| Posted by: john 2007-02-10 16:41 |
| #2 A radical thought: make the Muslim and non-Muslim residents of Indian Kashmir subject to the religion-neutral laws of India with no exceptions, along with the Muslims and non-Muslims of the country. If the Muslims individually choose to pile Shariat law on top, they may, so long as it doesn't contradict the laws of the nation of which they are citizens. There is a reason Justice is always shown blindfolded. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-02-10 13:14 |
| #1 I first read the headline as "ARMPIT of laws based on shariat" Seems more accurate than the real headline. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-02-10 10:08 |