PESHAWAR, July 10: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Aamal government will table the Hasba bill in the provincial assembly on Monday while opposition parties have decided to resist the move.
Provincial Information Secretary of the MMA, Mufti Kifayatullah, told newsmen on Sunday that constitution of a Hasba Institution was part of the government’s agenda of enforcing Islamic laws in the province. He said the government was determined to table the bill in the current session.
However, the opposition, comprising the Awami National Party, the Pakistan Muslim League and the Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao), has strongly criticized the bill and decided to jointly resist it.
The leader of opposition in the NWFP assembly, Shezada Gastasap Khan, criticized the government for failing to remove reservations of opposition parties in the proposed law.
He said that although the government had discussed the bill with parliamentary leaders of different political parties in the assembly, the opposition’s apprehensions about misuse of powers by ‘Hasba force’, to be formed after the bill’s approval, had not been addressed.
He said that the bill was against the constitution of Pakistan and would create a parallel judicial system in the country, giving rise to confusion and uncertainty among the masses.
The parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Mr Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, termed the bill as a document aimed at ‘Talibanization’ of the NWFP.
Expressing serious reservations over the bill he said there was no need to set up a Hasba institution.
He said that if the MMA government seriously desired to end corruption and provide speedy justice on petty disputes, it should make use of the institutions which already existed in the country. It would be unfair to put additional burden of such an institution on an economically poor province.
The parliamentary leader of the Awami National Party, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, observed that MMA’s programme to enforce Shariat was meant only to hoodwink innocent people.
He said that if they were serious about enforcing Islamic laws, they should immediately end their VIP privileges.— Agencies