08 July 2004	Thursday	19 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

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PESHAWAR, July 7: Opposition parties' parliamentary leaders have rejected the proposed Hasba bill and termed it a political ploy of the Muttahidda Majlis-i-Amal to hoodwink the masses and to divert people's attention from serious problems.

The lawmakers expressed their views on the bill at a one-day seminar entitled, "Proposed Hasba Bill and Its Implications" organized on Wednesday by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan at the Peshawar Press Club.

Leader of the opposition in the NWFP assembly Shahzada Gustasip, PPP parliamentary leader Abdul Akbar Khan, Anwar Kamal Marwat of the PML-N and Bashir Ahmed Bilour of the ANP said that if tabled in the assembly, the bill would be vehemently opposed and rejected by the opposition.

It was a dictatorial law which would curb civil liberties, they added. Mr Gustasip said the opposition had supported the MMA government in passing the Shariat bill because nobody was against the Islamic system.

"The MMA government has done nothing to implement the Shariat in the province, and the passage of the bill has brought no positive change in the life of the common man.

Now the bloc is using the proposed Hasba bill promising a better system to bring about a positive change in people's life. But actually the MMA want it passed to rule peacefully and complete its term," said Mr Gustasip.

He alleged that the MMA wanted to occupy the province by introducing a parallel administrative-cum-judicial system. He said Hitler did the same, when his party occupied police stations and municipal committees in Germany and it ended up in the rise of Nazism.

Abdul Akbar Khan, another opposition MPA, said the MMA government wanted to make the proposed Hasba bill an issue so that it could divert the attention of the people from serious problems which the government had failed to redress.

Mr Khan said it was for the first time that the government was showing keen interest and was running campaign about the proposed law. "No Hasba bill is going to be proposed as the MMA government is still holding seminars and displaying banners in the province," Mr Khan said.

"The legislation is the outcome of some factors. There is nothing for the benefit of the common man in this law as the government is looking for the employment of mullahs," he said.

"Mullahs have always been agents of governments in the past but for the first time the MMA has come into power and now it wants to make it an issue so that it could be used to strike a deal with the military government," Mr Khan said.

Mr Anwar Kamal said that the MMA government had not taken him into the confidence over the Hasba issue. "We think mullahs want to create some lucrative jobs for their non-elected people in the province," he added.

ANP's parliamentary leader Bashir Bilour said that the MMA practically was just using such laws to cover up their shortcomings as the government had done nothing to improve conditions of the people.

NWFP Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Malik Zaar Azam said the MMA government had come into power not in the name of providing education or other such things but for the establishment of an Islamic system in an Islamic state.

He said the government for the first time held a seminar a few days ago to assess people's opinion on the proposed bill. He said that this law was needed to prevent vice and promote virtue in society.

Afrasiab Khattak, a former HRCP chairman, said under this law a parallel judicial system would come into force which would undermine the whole judicial system. He expressed the fear that the next move of the MMA government would be to abolish courts after putting the blame that they were not being run under the Islamic laws. He claimed that the Hasba bill might push society towards fascism.