Friday, 15 December 2006
'Taleban law' blocked in Pakistan'
Pakistan's Supreme Court has blocked a fresh attempt to enact a Taleban-style law to enforce Islamic morality in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The court instructed the provincial governor not to sign the bill, which is oppsed by President Pervez Musharraf.
North West Frontier Province, which is governed by an alliance of religious parties sympathetic to the Taleban, passed the legislation last month.
Last year a similar bill was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Correspondents say it is almost unheard of for the same bill passed by a provincial assembly to be challenged twice in the courts by the federal government.
NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, a member of the ruling alliance of religious parties, accused the government of being undemocratic.
"We are really surprised. We drafted the bill in light of the Supreme Court's directives," he told Reuters news agency.
"The federal government's decision to go to the court exposes their claims that they believe in democracy."
Rare
The Supreme Court ordered the NWFP governor not to sign the bill into law until the case had been decided.
It said it would take up the matter again in the third week of January.
The ruling came after a petition from President Musharraf, Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan said.
The bill adopted by the NWFP assembly last month was a watered-down version of the legislation rejected by the Supreme Court last year, again after a petition from the president.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says the key difference between the bills is that the department being set up to enforce morality will not have its own police force.
But our correspondent says it will, however, be able to requisition police "to promote virtue and prevent vice".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6182395.stm
'Taleban law' blocked in Pakistan'
Pakistan's Supreme Court has blocked a fresh attempt to enact a Taleban-style law to enforce Islamic morality in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The court instructed the provincial governor not to sign the bill, which is oppsed by President Pervez Musharraf.
North West Frontier Province, which is governed by an alliance of religious parties sympathetic to the Taleban, passed the legislation last month.
Last year a similar bill was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Correspondents say it is almost unheard of for the same bill passed by a provincial assembly to be challenged twice in the courts by the federal government.
NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, a member of the ruling alliance of religious parties, accused the government of being undemocratic.
"We are really surprised. We drafted the bill in light of the Supreme Court's directives," he told Reuters news agency.
"The federal government's decision to go to the court exposes their claims that they believe in democracy."
Rare
The Supreme Court ordered the NWFP governor not to sign the bill into law until the case had been decided.
It said it would take up the matter again in the third week of January.
The ruling came after a petition from President Musharraf, Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan said.
The bill adopted by the NWFP assembly last month was a watered-down version of the legislation rejected by the Supreme Court last year, again after a petition from the president.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says the key difference between the bills is that the department being set up to enforce morality will not have its own police force.
But our correspondent says it will, however, be able to requisition police "to promote virtue and prevent vice".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6182395.stm
