Asia Times: Pakistan lacks legal clout to curb violence


	March 1, 2002	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Pakistan lacks legal clout to curb violence
By Nadeem Iqbal

ISLAMABAD - This week's killing of worshippers offering maghrib (evening) prayers in a mosque, soon after the murder of a United States journalist, shows that extremists have gone underground and are far from being eliminated despite the Pakistani government's crackdown on them.

On Tuesday, 12 people were shot dead and 16 critically injured when three attackers sprayed bullets on about 40 worshippers in a mosque in Islamabad's twin city of Rawalpindi and fled. "Three terrorists on a motorcycle came outside the mosque. Two of the assailants walked into the mosque and locked the door from inside and the third one stood outside. The two men, apparently in their 20s, first started hurling abuses and then sprayed bullets on the worshippers," said Abdul Wali, one of the injured.

Police in Pakistan are reported to have arrested a number of suspected extremists in connection with the killing, including 15 Sunni Muslims.

President General Pervez Musharraf said that groups opposed to his government's policy of fighting extremism were out to prevent him from pursuing the policy.

The United States has offered a US$5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the killers of US journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan. Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, was kidnapped in Karachi on 23 January. His death by beheading was confirmed in a videotape sent to US officials last week.

The mosque incident is the first such violence since January 12, when in an address to the nation Musharraf banned five extremists' organizations involved in terrorist and other violent activities inside and outside Pakistan, and said that the country would root out religious extremism. "But," he reiterated, "the government would continue with its firm resolve to root out terrorism and extremism from society."

Interior Secretary Tansies Noreen dubbed the attack sectarian motivated, saying that such violence had been curbed in the past but that to expect everything to fall in line under Islamabad's new policy was expecting too much.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the past decade in sectarian violence in Pakistan, where Sunni Muslims form the majority. Shi'ites make up about 20 percent of the population. And for more than a decade, rival Muslim groups have figured in violence every year before the commencement of the first month of the lunar Islamic calendar. When Shi'ites (a Muslim sect) commemorate Muharram, the martyrdom of Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, by holding big processions, attacks by militant outfits of the Sunni sect have often occurred. Strict security measures have thus been implemented over the years, and are credited for reducing the death toll in sectarian violence from 200 in 1997 to 78 in 1998 and 53 in 1999.

Tuesday's incident occurred about two weeks before the start of Muharram, despite the fact that the government has banned the militant outfits Sipahe Muhammad and Lashkare Jhangvi. The choice of Rawalpindi for the attack may well have been symbolic too, as it is home to Pakistan's army headquarters. Since September 11, soldiers have been on patrol and police have guarded mosques during prayers. But on Tuesday, the police guard was himself inside, offering prayers.

The attack also occurred just a few weeks after Pakistani police began carrying out a countrywide crackdown on the groups banned by Musharraf. About 2,000 extremists have been arrested, but none of them have so far been convicted.

Official campaigns have also been launched to register about 100,000 religious schools, with 500,000 students brought into the mainstream education system, and to recover illegal arms to de-weaponize society. Since June 20 of last year, about 137,000 illegal weapons have been recovered.

But before these measures have started to bear lasting results, violence is resurfacing. Interviews with officials show that one main reason for this is the government's inability to have the perpetrators of violence prosecuted in court.

In the first week of February, the government announced the establishment of special "anti-terrorist" courts, with a high-ranking army officer as judge, as part of its campaign against extremism. The government announcement said that the circumstances and security of the court staff also warranted the presence of army officers as members of these courts and investigation teams. But the plans hit a snag when a provincial higher court stopped the execution of the official order, and lawyers held rallies in protest.

Indeed, many lawyers' associations have pledged not to appear before a special court that has an army judge. They argue that these new courts are actually the military-led government's attempt to further its powers, to jeopardize the independence of the judiciary and to establish a parallel system of justice.

Abid Hasan Minto, a constitutional expert, said, "There is no justification to appoint an army colonel [as members of the court]. If the judges have complained about security, is this the only way to provide security?"

There are also fears that jihadi organizations enjoy a lot of sympathy among official quarters in Pakistan.

"President Musharraf can renew his pledge to take the extremists to task every few months, but unless he can identify the traitors to his cause within the establishment, his mission is doomed," wrote Rehana Hakim of Newsline magazine. "Far from taking any action, the government has been brazenly protective of the religious groups. True, the Musharraf government has a lot on its plate, but this is one problem that has to be dealt with with all urgency and all the force at the government's command. Pussy-footing and back-tracking will not work," she argued. She warned further, "The battle lines seem to have been drawn. A deadly war looms ahead, but it is a war for Pakistan's survival as a progressive and civilized state in the comity of nations. And it has to be won."

Musharraf faces a tough, uphill struggle - his military-led government has so far been unable to make clear progress against extremists, who have given the country a negative image, although popular backing for such a clampdown appears to remain high. For instance, a survey by the English monthly Herald in late January found that the majority of those polled in seven big cities of Pakistan supported anti-extremism measures. The survey was conducted among 1,239 urban residents, with nearly equal numbers of men and women.

When asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of the ban on religious organizations?", 56 percent of the respondents said that they approved of it and 29 percent disapproved. Sixty-three percent of them said that extremism had increased during the past five years, while 19 percent said that they had seen a decrease. Asked if extremism would increase or decrease in the next five years, 30 percent (26 percent male and 34 percent female) said that it would increase. But 46 percent (57 percent male and 36.5 percent female) were optimistic it would decline, and 21 percent thought that the situation would remain unchanged.

In that poll, 33 percent of interviewees considered themselves to be "ideologically liberal", 17 percent "conservative" and 26 percent said that they were in the middle.

(Inter Press Service)