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Scrap The
Whole Hudood Ordinance
There
is a good and right way to do things and there is a bad and
wrong way to do things. General Musharraf always chooses a bad
and wrong way to do things. The fresh example is the way he
handled Hudood Ordinance.
He tried to strike balance between Mullahs
and Liberals or Extremist Liberals in his words. The result of
this effort is the bill still stands on its two feet with full
force and poor women of Pakistan who are living in the worst
slavery conditions will get minimum benefit out of this legal
change.
The rule of thumb is every time a legislative
body tries to deal with a current law it should remove the
anomalies in its present form and if this law does not serve the
purpose it should be taken off he books.
Hudood ordinance has not done anything good
in Pakistan. Since general Zia imposed it on Pakistan, more
people have suffered unjustly under this law than benefiting
from it. It also became a source of corruption at police station
level because of its dual nature wiz-a-wiz Pakistan’s common
law.
Then what is the sense in continuing this
law? Islam does not hinge on Hudood ordinance. Islam existed
before general Zia introduced this law in Pakistan and it will
exist if this law is removed from the books.
Changes made in Hudood ordinance by
introducing Women Protection Bill (a deceptive title to fool
people at home and abroad) general Musharraf has left the most
controversial ordinance intact.
The right thing to do is to scrap off Hudood
ordinance in totality. Instead of scrapping of this ordinance,
general Musharraf has chosen to use it to score points and
sharpen the divide lines in Pakistani politics.
After getting all the mileage out of right
wing forces, general Musharraf has been craving for a while to
bring liberal and left of the center forces closer to him to use
them in next phase of his scheme of things. He has used Hudood
ordinance exactly to do the same. Now, mullahs stand on the
other end and PPP and other liberal parties stand on his side.
By introducing Women Protection Bill, general
Musharraf may have achieved his desired political results, but
there is not going to be much change in the anomalies and havocs
caused by this ordinance in Pakistani law and Pakistani society.
The right thing to do is to get rid of Hudood
ordinance in totality, there is nothing Islamic in Hudood
ordinance.
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