| July 15, 2005 | Friday | Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1426 |
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Resistance to Hasba bill
Contaminated water
THE code of conduct announced by the Chief Election Commissioner on Wednesday contains some welcome points, though many clauses seem odd and open to misuse. In this category falls the clause concerning a candidate who had worked against “the ideology of Pakistan” or expressed views prejudicial to the country’s sovereignty and integrity. This clause can be twisted to bring any candidate’s views within the mischief of law. As on previous occasions, the code forbids the display of firearms. However, given the kind of society we have developed over the last two decades, it seems impossible that electioneering will be free of display of firearms. A great responsibility thus rests on the candidates themselves: they should not take emotions to a pitch where rival supporters let go of their senses and take to arms. From this point of view, the code announced by Mr Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar contains some useful guidelines for the candidates.
The code expects all candidates not to make inflammatory speeches or use provocative language against their rivals, hurt the religious or ethnic sentiments of other candidates or call their opponents kafirs or traitors. This caution would normally not be needed in a country with a higher level of education and political culture. But in Pakistan, where intolerance and bigotry are pervasive, even legitimate criticisms couched in moderate language, may sometimes draw violent reactions. Worse, political parties may not be there officially, but they will be there very much in the picture and work for their candidates by mobilizing party volunteers and resources. Given the relationship between some parties — where political differences have degenerated into enmity — it is obvious that the candidates will hardly be able to exercise restraint. The danger of violence with the consequent loss of lives is always there. All political parties must, therefore, see to it that candidates backed by them conform to the code in conducting electioneering.
Holding public rallies and taking out processions are part of the political freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the code has restricted these freedoms by banning rallies on roads but allowing “corner meetings”. Similarly, processions have been disallowed, and instead of loudspeakers the use of megaphones has been permitted. The bans would have not been needed if rallies and processions were not liable to get out of hand. As experience has shown, rallies and processions — not necessarily political — often turn out to be chaotic. Traffic is held up for hours, normal life often comes to a halt, and the use of loudspeakers at odd hours tends to disturb people, especially the sick and the old. It should take some time before our politicians evolve a code of their own to exercise these freedoms according to democratic standards without an official code being needed.
The limit on the amount a candidate can spend is welcome, though it is difficult to ascertain how much a candidate has actually spent. With the political parties operating behind the scenes and with no dearth of donors, expenses will hardly be within the limits. In any case, the returns on expenses have to be filed with the election commission after the polls are over, and no exception should be allowed in the matter of filing of returns. The code must be enforced strictly, and those violating it must be dealt with accordingly. The LB elections will be a good chance for the election machinery to test its abilities. With a general election due in 2007, the electoral exercise in August and September should help the EC tone up its system.
NWFP governor Khalilur Rahman’s remarks that he will not allow the province to be “Talibanized” and that “every constitutional step” will be taken to stop the implementation of the Hasba bill are encouraging. Barring, of course, the MMA’s component parties, the Hasba bill has been severely criticized by all political parties, human rights groups, minority associations, civic groups and concerned citizens — and for good reason. If passed into law and implemented in the manner that the MMA government wishes to do, the Hasba bill will exacerbate an already hostile climate for women, minorities, and non-governmental organizations in the NWFP. The office of ombudsman, which the bill seeks to create, will have the power to issue directives to “reform society in accordance with the teachings of Islam” with one of its particular briefs being ensuring “adherence to Islamic values in public places”. A police force will be at the ombudsman’s beck and call to ensure that all such directives are implemented. Quite surprisingly, the bill places the ombudsman outside the law in the sense that any action taken “in good faith” by him will not be challengeable in a court of law.
One can well imagine what kind of controlled society such a law aims at creating. As it is, the NWFP government has already taken various discriminatory steps against women, its ministers have often spoken threateningly against NGOs, and vigilante groups, often backed by local MMA leaders, have gone about defacing billboards having women’s pictures with impunity. Also, Peshawar’s music and theatre industry has died a quick death at the hands of a government which equates entertainment with sin. The Hasba law will only make all this worse and make life in the province a joyless, stifling existence. Men and women walking in public could be harassed to ascertain whether the man is a ‘mehram’ or not, while businesses and shops could be forced to close at the time of prayer. The NWFP will indeed be pushed back into an era of Talibanization with a rigid and obscurantist code of religion being shoved down people’s throats, and with serious implications for the entire country’s system of governance and dispensation of justice. All this is quite contrary to the Quranic precept that there is no compulsion in religion. This seems to have been lost on the MMA-led government.
WATER authorities in Pakistan will have to work very hard indeed if they are to realize President Musharraf’s promise of providing safe water for the entire country by 2007. Statistics are not promising at the moment and indicate that about half the population has no access to safe drinking water. People in rural areas suffer even more as there are estimates that up to 90 per cent of them are deprived of clean water. It is no wonder that impure water continues to be the leading cause of death, with children — about 250,000 die annually of water-related complications — most at risk. In view of this sorry state of affairs, nothing less than Herculean efforts would be needed to meet the UN millennium goal of halving the number of people without access to safe water by 2015, let alone providing the entire country with safe drinking water by 2007.
As of now, there seems to be no end in sight to the problem. There are frequent outbreaks of water-borne diseases in different parts of the country, such as the one in Hyderabad last year that killed a number of people, including many children. It is difficult to avoid such outbreaks so long as industries continue to pollute our waterways with untreated effluents. Water being scarce, people have no alternative but to drink it even when it is impure and contaminated. Sadly, the government does not seem to have learned its lesson and has done little to provide people with enhanced supplies of better quality water or to check polluting industries that are in violation of the country’s environmental laws. If it does not do so now, the problem is bound to assume serious proportions all over the country.