Revising Hudood laws

Two points about Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali's statement on the Hudood laws on Tuesday call for attention. First, he pointed out that the laws were man-made; second, the government did not intend to make any amendments to these ordinances in violation of Islamic jurisprudence.

As he pointed out, a revised law would be referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for its approval, and finally it would be examined, debated and passed by parliament. Since the Constitution makes it clear that no law can be enacted if it goes against the Quran and Sunnah, parliament itself will not be able to pass an un-Islamic law.

Given the often emotional and irrational reaction from obscurantist elements to any suggestion for amendments to these laws, the prime minister's statement should serve to dispel misgivings about the government's intentions.

The Hudood ordinances are not only man-made laws; they were decreed by a military dictator in an arbitrary manner. He made no attempt to create a national consensus on the laws, nor did he bother to consult intellectuals and the media on the issue.

He did not even consult the ulema of all sects. Instead, he sought and got the willing support of a small coterie of the ulema who had aligned themselves with the general for political reasons.

No wonder, the laws, while providing for punishments not acceptable to all schools of Islamic thought, contain clauses that are in gross violation of the basic principles of justice and equity.

Women and society's disadvantaged groups have been the principal victims of these laws which had been enacted in a hurry to establish the regime's Islamic credentials. One abhorring clause provides for the immediate arrest of a woman who reports rape.

This clause - that can by no stretch of the imagination be called Islamic - punishes the victim rather than the criminal. Often rape victims have languished in jail for long periods, while the criminals at large have time and opportunity to subvert witnesses and the due process of law.

For these reasons, enlightened sections of society and many ulema have been critical of the law and been demanding its repeal or revision. A revision must take the views of all sections of society into consideration.

Before a draft law is sent to the CII, it must secure the support of all sections of the ulema, the enlightened sections of society, women groups and the media. It will be a good idea to seek the views of the ulema and Islamic scholars in other Muslim countries so as to have a wider perspective on the matter.

However, an approval by the CII should not be binding on the National Assembly. While the parliamentarians should take the opinion of the CII into account, the National Assembly as the sovereign law-making body should have the right to approve, reject or modify it.

As Allama Iqbal points out in his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, the basic principle of Ijma in modern times can be achieved only through a parliament. Let Pakistan's parliament assert this right, lest non-elected clerics arrogate to themselves a right that Islam does not confer on them.

Operation in Waziristan

What's going on in South Waziristan has never been very clear. The situation there following the latest operation remains confusing. The hide and seek between militants and paramilitary forces has continued since March, with spurts of heavy fighting breaking out and agreements to abjure violence reached in between.

So far paramilitary forces have lost over 70 men in the two actions against militants while the number of terrorists and tribal civilians dead is believed to be much higher.

The fact remains that no arrests have been made in South Waziristan itself, with foreign militants and those offering them shelter and protection either fleeing the area or going underground to escape capture.

Those who had been arrested in the earlier action were released after the signing of an armistice with tribal leaders in April. Military sources have admitted that the terrorists' hideouts, some of them in the form of deep and long underground tunnels, are much more difficult to penetrate than earlier thought.

The five-day operation which ended on Sunday and which also employed helicopter gunships and jet fighters appears to have led to more deaths and destruction rather than achieving the objective of cleansing the area of militants.

Military action can achieve only set targets. Even if all wanted elements are caught or killed, the region will remain restive unless the problem of outdated colonial pattern of governance of the federally administered and semi-autonomous tribal areas is tackled headlong.

The government must begin to address this anomaly by initiating a dialogue with Fata elders with the aim of politically and otherwise integrating these areas with the rest of the country.

The Frontier Crimes Regulations of 1872, based on the principle of "collective responsibility" - a colonial euphemism for collective punishment - and governing the Islamabad-Fata equation need to be scrapped.

While there should be zero tolerance for terrorism and militants (whether local or foreign), military operations that can result in loss of civilian life and damage to property should also be ruled out.

Achieving a political consensus on full integration of Fata with settled areas and on the abolition of Fata's special status may take time, but that is the only lasting solution to both militancy and menacing lawlessness in that part of the country.

An unfair levy

The proposal to include TV licence fee in monthly electricity bills is both impractical and unfair. The assumption that all power consumers using more than 100 units of electricity own television sets and should be charged a monthly TV fee means that those who don't own TV sets will now have to run from pillar to post to have this levy waived.

It also gives those consuming less than one hundred units an exemption that is unjustifiable in that the bulk of them are also likely to own TV sets. The existing system under which TV set owners buy their licences and inspectors make random visits to check them is a more practical arrangement.

In a world where most countries have abolished TV licences, there are many who argue that TV licence fee should be charged only if the state owned electronic media do not air advertisements, as in the case of the BBC. This is clearly not the case in Pakistan where a major part of PTV air time goes to advertising and sponsorships.

Reports say that despite an income of two billion rupees in 2003, PTV suffered a loss of Rs343 million because of stuck-up recoveries of over Rs1.2 billion. If the government wants to increase PTV's revenue, it should start by taking steps for the recovery of unpaid dues rather than taxing TV owners.

The information ministry's proposal for resuming cigarette advertising on PTV is unacceptable for reasons of public health. For PTV to generate more revenue on a longer-term basis, more attention needs to be paid to the content of its programmes, which will certainly help strengthen PTV's pull as an advertising medium.