Monday, May 04, 2009
Kamal Matinuddin
The need for cheap and speedy justice cannot be questioned. The promulgation of Nizam-e-Adl can, therefore, be termed as a step in the right direction. The manner it was achieved, however, was shameful. The provincial government capitulated before those who committed unspeakable brutalities. Parliament passed the bill in a matter of hours and without any debate. The silence displayed by the elected representatives including female parliamentarians was disappointing, to say the least.
It is not a question of only cheap and speedy justice. It is the manner in which it will be administered, which is questionable. Is there one authorized codified book on Sharia, which the Qazis will abide by? Yes there are some punishments specified in the Quran, which cannot be changed. But times have changed. The social environment is now totally different to what it was 1,500 years ago. Many transactions now take place, which were not there in the days of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Women now have to work in the fields along with their men folk. Girls have to attend schools and colleges to become nurses and doctors. They have to supplement household income by working in homes and offices.
A dress code for Muslim women has not specifically been prescribed in the Holy Book. Nor is there any standard practice in this regard in the Muslim world. Muslim nations have adopted different dresses for women. In Saudi Arabia women cover themselves from head to foot. In Iran, women leave their faces open and are working in all government departments and stores. Indonesian women wear off-the-shoulder gowns on formal occasions. Turkish women have adopted western dresses. In Pakistan different social groups interpret the hijab in different ways.
Religious leaders also differ on whether men should talk to a na-mahram. A young lady doing her PhD in religious studies had to a write a paper on fatwas in Islam. She went to the internationally famous Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak. Needless to say she was properly attired. On reaching the seminary she was ushered into a room and asked to sit behind a thick curtain. When the mufti arrived he not only refused to see the girl but also was not prepared to hear her voice. So the young lady was told to write the questions on a piece of paper and slip it under the curtain. The mufti wrote down the answers and slipped it back along the floor. She came out into the room where I was sitting with Anwarul Haq, the son of the renowned religious leader Maulana Abdul Haq. We had an open discussion on fatwas. Who was right? The mufti who was not prepared to hear the voice of a na-mahram or Anwarul Haq? Both I believe must be fully acquainted with the Sharia.
Our religious clerics talk about referring matters to the Council of Islamic Ideology established by General Ziaul Haq. There is an interesting case of what kind of work they were engaged in. Once on my way from Karachi to Islamabad. I was sitting next to the then chairman of the Islamic Ideology Council (CII) in the plane. When I asked him what was the issue presently being undertaken by the CII, he told me that they were working on the issue of whether transplanting a non-Muslim’s kidney into a Muslim person is permitted in Islam.
The owner of a popular Urdu newspaper opines that all those who oppose the Nizam-e-Adl should move to Bharat. I wish he had also said that the members of a religious organisation, which opposed the creation of Pakistan, should also migrate to India and those who addressed Quaid-e-Azam as Kafir-e-Azam should not stay in the land he founded.
The NWFP government gave into the Taliban because they wanted peace. I recall paying a visit to an Afghan refugee camp in Akora Khattak around 1994 during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. When I asked some Afghan refugees as to why they had left their peaceful abode. They replied that “peace is not enough to fill our children’s stomachs. There is no economic activity in Afghanistan under the Taliban. We have come here to earn our livelihood and send some money back to our family.” Barbers, lawyers, music shop-owners, sellers of CDs, hoteliers, school teachers, all will be out of business in Swat.
Nejla Izzeddin, describing the cause of Muslim stagnation writes in his book The Arab Mind that search for knowledge was smothered under the hard crust of dogmas and fundamentalism. Let this not happen to our country. It will, if we do not look beyond Nizam-e-Adl.
The writer is a retired lieutenant-general and a former director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies. Email kmatin@comsats.net.pk
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