LAHORE, Aug 29: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leaders have said that the proposed Hasba Bill of the NWFP government is designed to provide cheap and quick justice to the people and to bring about Islamic social order in the province.

They were speaking at a seminar held by the Mufti Mahmud Academy in collaboration with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam at Alhamra to pay tributes to the late Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai and to discuss the Hasba Bill here on Sunday.

MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmad who presided over the third and last session of the seminar said that the people had lost confidence on the courts, which had failed to provide justice to them on time.

He said that the Hasba Bill when passed by the provincial assembly would meet the basic need of the people for cheap and quick justice. He said that in the NWFP there had been a tradition of deciding the cases by holding jirgas in mosques where the people had been getting justice free of cost without any loss of time.

The proposed bill would institutionalize and legalize the traditional jirga system of disposing of the cases. He said that the not only the people but lawyers, judges right from chief justices to sub-judges and others had admitted that under the present judicial system it was hard for the people to seek justice.

"No doubt the courts are working but the people have no confidence in them," he remarked. He said that doors of justice had been shut upon the people. There were no political, judicial, legal nor administrative institutions where the people could go to seek justice.

He said that the MMA leaders had asked the people at public meetings if they were satisfied with the present judicial system and they had replied in the negative.

The Hasba Bill had been designed to open the doors of justice to the people. The local people of integrity would be included in the council proposed to be set up under the Hasba law to supervise the implementation of the law from the provincial down to the tehsil level.

The law would also ensure to mould the lives of the Muslims in accordance with the principles and teachings of the holy Quran and Sunnah. He said that the people under the influence of western morals and manners were opposing the Hasba Bill as they thought it would hit their western way of life which was nothing but immoral and against the Islamic morals.

He said that the people had elected the MMA members of assemblies to enforce Islam and they would not fail them. "We shall honour our promise made to the people." MMA Secretary General and JUI amir Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that the Hasba bill was neither against the Constitution of Pakistan nor any other law of the land.

It was within the jurisdiction of the NWFP government as it was not included in the Federal and Concurrent lists of subjects of the Constitution but simply a provincial subject, which the provincial government could legislate.

He said that the bill was not a secret document and the people were at liberty to express their opinion on it. Their suggestions and views, if genuine, would be incorporated in the final draft of the Bill.

He said that the UN Charter allowed the people to adopt any system in accordance with the principles and teachings of their respective religions, castes and creeds.

This had been considered as basic right of the people by the UN charter. The people of Pakistan had all rights to lead their lives according to their religions and the constitution had also given this right to them. "Thus the NWFP government's decision to bring a law to enable the Muslims of the country to lead their lives in accordance with their religious concepts and principles was also right both under the UN charter and the constitution of their own country."

He said that unlike other religions Islam was the only religion which governed the lives of its followers both at individual and collective levels. At collective level an Islamic state had certain obligations to fulfil which had been clearly laid down by the Quran and Sunnah.

"Thus there is no separation between the Church and State in Islam. Now it is the responsibility of the NWFP government to enforce Islam as far as it is possible under its present constitutional and legal authority. Any attempt to prevent the provincial government from passing the Hasba bill by any agency would be illegal."

Fazl then recounted the achievements of the NWFP government in various fields for the welfare of the people and discussed the future measures to mould the lives of the people in accordance with the principles of Quran and Sunnah.

The NWFP Law minister Ayaz Ahmad said that Hasba Bill was not a new piece of legislation as similar laws were in vogue in other provinces as well as the federal government where they were called the law of Ombudsman.

He said that Federal Ombudsman ordinance was issued in 1983 followed by similar laws for appointment of provincial ombudsmen in Punjab in 1992, Sindh in 1997 and Balochistan in 2001. "We have just given an Islamic name and called him 'mohtasib' who has the same powers as ombudsmen in other provinces." He said that another purpose of the Hasba Bill was to enforce what was good and permissible in Islam and prohibit what was wrong.

He said that the NWFP governor had withheld his permission to the Bill and had referred it to the Council of Islamic Ideology, which had not so far given its opinion. He denied reports that the CII had rejected the bill.

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani who could not attend the seminar sent his message, stating the objectives and importance of the Hasba Bill.

Other speakers included Mr Justice Nazir Akhtar (retired), NWFP Government spokesmen Mufti Kifiat Ullah, Shamnsur Rahman Shamsi, NWFP Shariat Council chairman Maulana Ghulamur Rahman, Senator Prof Muhammad Ibrahim of Jamaat-I-Islami, JI Naib Amir Maulana Aslam Saleemi, Ismael Qureishi advocate, Mufti Jameel of Mufti Mahmud Academy, Lahore JUI amir Maulana Amir Hussain Gilani.