By Nadeem Ansari
On August 28, the Pakistan government introduced a bill — the Fifteenth Amendment Bill — to the National Assembly to amend the constitution to make Islamic law the supreme law of Pakistan.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, speaking from the floor of the assembly and broadcast live on national TV on August 30, described the bill as historic and aimed at creating a new society based on principles of equality.
The minister for religious affairs says the amendment will make Quran and Islamic law the "supreme law". This means Islamic law would take precedence over all other laws, the constitution and judgments of the courts. The prime minister can declare himself Amirul Momineen (Leader of Muslims) and embody the authority of the state.
Pakistan is in the midst of an economic crisis. After the government's nuclear tests in March, the International Monetary Fund froze loans to Islamabad, and the US and Japan imposed economic sanctions.
According to the state bank, Pakistan has only US$500 million in foreign currency reserves. Attempts to obtain funds from the Islamic Development Bank have been largely unsuccessful.
The people of Pakistan are facing price hikes and unemployment. In Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, there is a virtual civil war between different ethnic groups.
As well, tension is rising between the two main Muslim sects, the Shia and Sunni. Attacks have been launched against each by the other in different parts of the country.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) is losing support as it fails to improve the deteriorating political and economical situation. The PML's coalition partners have deserted the government in the National Assembly, the Senate and all the provincial assemblies. In Sindh province, the PML provincial government is trying to negotiate with independent MPs to maintain its majority.
The introduction of Islamic law is a desperate effort by Sharif to win support from the fundamentalists.
The Fifteenth Amendment Bill was passed, at short notice, by the assembly's standing committee on law and justice in the absence of opposition members and the justice minister. It completed its deliberations in two hours.
Opposition members had asked for time to discuss the bill with their parties, and walked out in protest when their request was rejected by the ruling party majority.
According to a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) committee member, Naveed Qamar, the amendment gives the prime minister the power to issue directives to any functionary of the state, including the chief of the army and the chief justice. "Any one of them could be taken to task if they fail to carry out his orders", Qamar said. "It's like having absolute tyranny in the country."
The bill also contains a provision to do away with the required two-thirds majority for a constitutional amendment. The amendment will curtail the powers of the Senate, which are considered to safeguard the rights of smaller provinces.
All major political parties, human rights groups, women's organisations, NGOs and legal rights groups have criticised the bill.
Opposition leader and chairperson of the PPP, Benezir Bhutto, observed in a statement: "The remnants of dictatorship of the late Zia ul-Haq intend to impose their brand of Islam to divert the attention of people from real problems by misusing the sacred name of Islam for political gains."
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called on parliament to reject the bill. The HRCP said that the proposed amendment is not an amendment at all, but completely alters the basic principles of the 1973 constitution and in effect repeals it.
The HRCP said the amendment lets the federation assume full and unshared responsibility for conceiving and enforcing what it considered was right and prohibiting what it decided was wrong, according to its own perceptions of the principles of Islam.
According to the Pakistan Bar Council, the amendment aims at establishing one-man rule. The PM will be able to rule by decree and his word will prevail over the constitution, laws and court decisions.
Minority groups have expressed concern at the proposed amendment. Only 3% of the Pakistan population is not Muslim. Christians have rejected the bill as a curb on their religious freedom. The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Armando Trindade, and the head of the Church of Pakistan, Alexander John Malik, have asked the PM to withdraw the bill.
Religious minorities in Pakistan already suffer hatred and discrimination as a result of existing Islamic laws. One law, which has often been misused, prescribes the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Quran.
The amendment bill will increase tensions between the Sunni and Shia sects. About 77% of Pakistan's Muslims are Sunni and 20% are Shia. Sunni religious leaders do not recognise the Shia as Muslims.
While the PML can muster enough assembly members' support to pass the bill, it is not clear whether the government can secure the two-thirds majority in the Senate required to pass the bill. The PML has only 26 senators, out of 87. It may win the support of 11 independents and four or five senators from small religious parties.
For the bill to pass the Senate, the government will have to make a "political bargain" to obtain the loyalty of small regional and religious parties — a common practice in Pakistani politics.
Unlike when an ordinary bill is stalled by an impasse between the two houses of parliament, a constitutional amendment cannot be passed by a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate.
If Sharif fails to get the support of the opposition in the Senate, he may accuse them of being anti-Islam. In Pakistan, television and radio are state controlled, and the ruling party can launch any such a campaign against the opposition and progressive elements.
With less than 30% of the population literate and the vast majority being religious, such a campaign could easily divert attention from the people's current political and economic problems.
Sharif's political stunt may also destroy peace in the region. After India and Pakistan's nuclear tests, relations are tense between the two neighbours. Artillery shells are crossing from both sides of the border in the disputed region of Kashmir and India has criticised Islamabad's move to make the Quran the supreme law in Pakistan.