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Pakistan's potent religious and political
mix
By Muddassir Rizvi
ISLAMABAD - The amity between the
military-backed government and right-wingers, and their
near agreement to end the country's persistent political
deadlock, may involve a quid pro quo that could
strengthen religious conservatism in Pakistan.
Although any agreement between the religious
parties and the government will put to rest debate over
the controversial constitutional amendments that
President General Pervez Musharraf enacted before the
national 2002 elections, commonly known as the Legal
Framework Order or LFO, the deal will come at a price.
"Politics is the name of quid pro quo. If the
religious parties agree to support the amendments to the
constitution in the parliament, obviously they will want
concessions in return," said a member of the Pakistan
Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) or Q-League, the largest
political party in the ruling coalition, requesting
anonymity.
The progressive opposition political
parties, including the Pakistan People's Party, have
already distanced themselves from any negotiations with
the government, demanding that the entire LFO be
presented for a parliamentary approval and that
Musharraf seek election in line with the constitutional
provisions. They dispute the government's claim that the
LFO has already become a part of the constitution.
However, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an
alliance of six religious parties in the mainly Muslim
country, and government negotiators continue their
dialogue to develop a mutually acceptable constitutional
package to ensure its smooth sailing in the parliament.
The leaders of the two sides now confirm that their
dialogue has entered a final stage and an agreement is
imminent.
"We have sought two days from the MMA
as some issues are still to be settled," said Prime
Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali after a marathon meeting
with the leaders of MMA and his allied parties late on
Tuesday night. By Friday, no formal agreement had been
announced.
The MMA says that the only unsettled
issue is the military uniform of Musharraf, adding that
the religious parties want him to relinquish the office
of army chief by December 2004. Earlier, the MMA had
given an October 2004 deadline to Musharraf.
Publicly, the MMA maintains that the controversy
over the LFO has to end because it wants the system to
run smoothly and parliament to be sovereign. It says
that since the government will seek approval of
constitutional amendments from the parliament, this
would restore the supremacy of the legislature elected
by the people.
But underlying their
pronouncements of parliamentary supremacy are the
religious parties' demands for the Islamization of
polity, which, MMA insiders claim, the government has
agreed to implement. These sources say that the MMA has
presented 17 demands to the government, seven related to
the constitutional amendments and the rest steps needed
for the country's Islamization.
Its major
demands, as revealed by MMA sources and press reports,
include a revision of media policy to bring it in line
with Islamic values, the setting up of commissions to
bring the education system and economy in accordance
with Islamic teachings, the promotion of the shalwar
kameez - traditional clothes consisting a flowing
blouse and pants - as national dress to be made
compulsory in all schools and colleges.
The
religious parties also want Friday to be declared a
weekly public holiday and would like a hands-off policy
for religious seminaries, or madrassas, which
should not be either registered by the government or
regulated. They are also battling for the removal of the
presidential powers to pardon a person convicted under
the Islamic hudood laws.
The MMA demands
steps to ensure the rights and autonomy of provinces as
enunciated by the 1973 constitution, women and
minorities' rights in accordance with Islamic
injunctions, the inclusion of Islamic subjects as part
of the curricula, the removal of obscenity and vulgarity
from electronic media, and the giving of equal
importance to religious and other subjects in schools
and seminaries.
The MMA also wants the
government to commit that all laws and regulations are
made in conformity with the recommendations of the
Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a constitutional body
that interprets all laws according to the Islamic
teachings. It also wants all recommendations of the CII
thus far to be discussed in parliament.
The
leader of the Q-League, Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, was
quoted by the press in as early as June as having
accepted the 10 demands of MMA with respect to
Islamization. However, publicly, the MMA maintains that
its ongoing dialogue with the government is just meant
to settle the row over the LFO and create a congenial
political atmosphere.
"The steps for
Islamization were our recommendations that we had
presented to the government in the earlier round of
talks this year - they were not demands," key MMA leader
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told Inter Press Service, without
confirming whether the religious parties have been able
to draw some concessions from the government.
But some political analysts simply see the MMA's
closeness with the government as stemming from the
vulnerability of religious parties for a variety of
factors. They control the North-West Frontier Province
on their own and run Balochistan [province] in coalition
with the Q-League," said Nazeer Maher, a political
analyst based in Islamabad. "Unless the MMA has good
relations with the federal government now under an-all
powerful president, their government in the two
provinces will continue to face the fear of
destabilization," he pointed out.
Among other
vulnerabilities of the MMA are the disqualification
petitions pending in the Supreme Court against its 65
members, who are said not to have the required
educational qualifications to be parliamentarians.
Under new election laws, the Musharraf
government had made graduation degrees compulsory for
contesting elections. However, many MMA members possess
only degrees from madrassas and these do not have
equivalence with graduation.
Said Maher, "These
[weaknesses] could be another reason for the MMA to
strike a deal with the government."
(Inter Press
Service)
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