Clowning With the Constitution in Pakistan

By Mahjabeen Islam-Husain

Pakistan was created in the name of Islam with a constitution based on the Qur’an and Sunnah (the life of Prophet Muhammad). Its creation (through division of the Indian subcontinent) may have caused the greatest mass migration in human history.

The father of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was fiercely principled and possessed inviolable integrity. Another founding father, Liaquat Ali Khan, belonged in this same league of the selflessly patriotic. Tuberculosis took Jinnah and an assassin Liaquat Ali Khan. The slide into anarchy thus began very soon after Pakistan’s creation in 1947. Various military juntas took over, and martial law reigned for many years. Interestingly, during the rule of one of those military leaders, Field Marshall Ayub Khan, Pakistan was the most progressive Muslim nation around.

A brief flirtation with democracy brought the brilliant but narcissistic Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to power—power which Bhutto adored and sacrificed one-half of the country to retain. In the greatest of democracies, such as the United States, many an unexplained and underhanded event occurs at the federal level. In the Third World many a conscience is compromised for power, and “underhanded” can reach homicidal levels.

Silencing a foe forever is not novel, but getting caught and hanged for it most certainly is. Such was the end of Bhutto. Reminds me of Shakespeare—“when ambition overleaps itself…”

Bhutto’s nemesis, General Zia ul-Haq, ruled with an iron hand and, in his mind, an Islamic one. He instituted the Hudood Ordinance in which crimes could be tried on the basis of Islamic law. He met his own end in a mysterious and fiery plane crash in which an American ambassador to Pakistan also was killed.

Some years after Pakistan was truncated because of Bhutto’s delusional ambition, his daughter showed up on the scene to steal the country silly. Daddy wanted power, but along with that Benezir Bhutto wanted million dollar diamond necklaces, plastic surgery and Swiss bank accounts.

Irony and the Bhuttos appear inseparable. Baby Bhutto’s handpicked president, Farooq Leghari, had had it with her corruption and removed her from office under a constitutional technicality.

Pakistanis frequently joke about the “kursi,” or chair of power. There is something magical about the “kursi” in Pakistan. When the most retiring and unambitious men or women sit in that chair, it transforms them into insatiable megalomaniacs. Also, nowhere does “move your feet, lose your seat” apply as aptly as it does in Pakistan, where frequently the people and the country pay for this overweaning ambition.

Women and non-Muslims will be the sacrificial lambs, as usual.

Now Pakistan faces Nawaz Sharif, whose current obsession is enactment of shariah law (law based on the Qur’an and Sunnah) in the country. His initial proposal was modified after widespread furor, but I feel that this initial attempt destroyed Sharif’s credibility. In the initial proposal, the Constitution could be amended by a simple majority rather than the two-thirds required currently, and in order to enforce Islam the federal government could issue directives that could not be challenged in any court.

Constitutional Amendment number 15, or CA15, consists of four clauses. The first states that the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah shall be the supreme law of Pakistan. The second enjoins the federal government to take steps to enforce the shariah, to establish prayers, to administer zakat or charity, to prescribe what is right and forbid what is evil, to eradicate corruption and provide for socioeconomic justice. The third clause states that nothing in this amendment shall affect the status of non-Muslims. The fourth states that the provisions in this amendment will take effect regardless of whatever is in the Constitution or the judgment of any court.

Sharif’s critics claim that this is being done to widen the power and the reach of his government. Prescribing what is right and forbidding what is evil is indeed a Qur’anic directive. In the hands of a government whose intent is, at best, questionable, however, the ramifications and interpretations of its reach are essentially infinite and mood-dependent.

The very fact that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam says something about its citizens. The super-elite is certainly morally challenged, but the majority of Pakistanis are God-fearing practicing Muslims. With this amendment the government will be invading the private lives of its citizens and reinforcing something they already do.

The Route to Vindication

What a grand waste of resources. It is a basic tenet of Islam that all of us will have individual accounting on the Day of Judgment. It is conceivable but not probable that Sharif is trying to gain kudos on that Day in the eyes of the Lord. Perhaps, instead, prompt return of billions in loans from the government, bringing back to Pakistan the millions transferred abroad by his family just prior to the nuclear test, avoiding nepotism, and leading an exemplary life would be a less circuitous route to vindication on the Day of Accountability.

I have always wondered why the leaders of Pakistan who attain the “kursi” lose all sense of proportion and justice, and bully the nation into becoming accomplices to their self-aggrandizement. Pakistan is still that poor little pancake that jumps forever from the frying pan into the fire.

The third clause attempts to protect the rights of non-Muslims. With such far-reaching powers of the federal government, critics are correct in stating that women and non-Muslims will be the sacrificial lambs, as usual.

The fourth clause essentially abrogates the third one and compromises fundamental human rights, since it provides that any action, whim or fancy of the government cannot be challenged in a court of law.

It is well known that Sharif is not overcome by the Taliban virus. Therefore, sudden transformation into a religious zealot does not explain his desire to have CA 15 passed into law. The only other possibilities are that he is either a moron or a megalomaniac. CA 15 has been passed by the National Assembly, but awaits passage in the Senate, where the ruling party will have to flex greater muscle.

Pakistan’s problems are numerous and monumental. Sharif has to be mentally challenged to want to focus on something that is of the least, if any, importance. Pakistan’s reserves have been bled dry by Benazir Bhutto, Sharif himself and a host of other loan-defaulting powerful types. Sanctions after the nuclear test have created significant hardship for the common man.

Unemployment and illiteracy are high, law and order are absent, the population grows unchecked, health care is archaic and maldistributed, environmental pollution is a major hazard and we have the Sharif government pushing for shariah law in the country! The analogy is a patient who is hemorrhaging at a rapid rate whilst the doctor leisurely analyzes his supposed psychological problems.

A tragic fact is that there is no dearth of talent in Pakistan. Initiative and hard work are easily discernible in the population. Pakistanis have been Nobel laureates as well as enterprising cabdrivers in metropolitan New York, the latter within a few weeks of landing in the United States.

I have driven for 15 years in the United States but cannot imagine negotiating New York streets within a few weeks of orientation. Talking taxis reminds me of a Pakistani cab driver in New York who returned the briefcase of a Scandinavian woman, which happened to contain $50,000. He gave Islam’s teaching of scrupulous honesty as the reason for this action.

Returning to the Sharif fiasco. What is the aim of this legislation? There is no dearth of laws in Pakistan to eradicate corruption. Obviously it is their implementation that is the issue. How can more legislation help? And what is the guarantee that existing laws will be implemented? The prospect of subjective interpretation and abuse is daunting.

It is indeed Pakistan’s misfortune that it is cursed by leaders whose focus is securing their own future. Sharif needs to do some thinking. In Islam “niyyat,” or intention, is of paramount importance. However much Sharif’s rhetoric may hoodwink the people, God certainly knows his intention. Meanwhile, to us earthly types, his “niyyat” appears to be very questionable.

Dr. Mahjabeen Islam-Husain is a Sunni Muslim Pakistan-born family practice physician in the Midwest. She and her husband, a Shi’i Muslim who also is a physician, have three daughters, and both are active in their local Islamic communities and in national Muslim-American affairs. She may be reached via e-mail at zakhsn@primenet.com.