Time to repeal the law

By Anees Jillani
Wednesday, 19 Aug, 2009 08:52 AM PST

The attack on the Christian community in Gojra is now being condemned by everybody. There was hardly anyone to defend the helpless victims at the time of attack.

However, now that the issue has been taken up by the higher functionaries, all feel comfortable in opposing it. The blasphemy law is not directly related to the incident as it could have taken place even without the law but it is an opportune time to get Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code either repealed, or at least drastically amended.

The government, however, appears reluctant to do anything with it, except to pay lip service to the call for its repeal. It is nothing short of ironical that the PPP is very vocal while opposing such draconian laws when in opposition but fails to do anything when in power. We have all experienced this in the two tenures of Benazir Bhutto, and have again been witnessing it since March last year.

Section 295-C is a legacy of Gen Ziaul Haq, just as the Hudood Ordinances are. There is hardly anybody left in the country who has anything nice to say about Gen Zia or his 11-year rule. However, his legacy is allowed to continue whether in the shape of the Afghan Mujihideen, the Kalashnikov and heroin culture, the thousands of madressahs, the influence of religious forces in our polity, the Hudood Ordinances, the blasphemy law, etc.

The present PPP government may be helpless in fighting the Kalashnikov and heroin cultures but the least it can do is to amend the blasphemy law, and repeal the Hudood Ordinances. Section 295-C was inserted in October 1986, following a controversial remark made by Asma Jehangir in Islamabad. The insertion makes the death penalty mandatory for making any derogatory remarks with regard to the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

The original amendment had the option of life imprisonment in the case of such an offence; however, this was deleted through an order of the Federal Shariat Court. The law is criticised for this mandatory provision, and for failing to provide a mechanism for filing such cases. Resultantly, the law is constantly being misused by unscrupulous elements to blackmail their opponents and get the latter into trouble. They have succeeded in their aims to a large extent.

The Hudood Ordinances are no different. A total of five ordinances were introduced in February 1979 dealing with property offences, zina, qazf, prohibition on drinking, and whipping. These laws should be seen in the context of the period during which they were introduced. The country was going through one of the worst dictatorial periods in its history and Gen Zia was using almost every trick of the trade to divert public attention from the imminent execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The introduction of the Hudood laws were brought in to show the military regime’s resolve to introduce an Islamic system if it was given sufficient time by the masses. Like other legislation, these laws failed to curb the offences they were directed against and social vices persist. The Hudood laws are obviously not the remedy to the ills afflicting almost every society in the world, and all we have seen so far are thousands of innocent men and women languishing in prisons all over Pakistan, charged under these confusingly drafted laws.

The co-chairman of the PPP is the president of the country, and the party, along with its allies, the ANP and MQM, has a comfortable majority in both houses of parliament, and the government is led by a PPP leader. What is then stopping the PPP from repealing all the five Hudood laws, and amending the blasphemy law? If, for some bizarre reason, the party is shy of taking up the matter in parliament, it can simply repeal them using the president’s power to legislate through an ordinance which remains in force for 120 days at a time, and which period can continuously be extended. The Nawaz Sharif government kept extending the ordinance dealing with diyat for more than four years in such a fashion, and the Supreme Court upheld this manner of extension.

It is all a question of showing the political resolve to undertake such a step. It is easy to make speeches and indulge in rhetoric, but legislative work entails a little bit of thinking and hard work. The first Benazir Bhutto government was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in August 1990, and one of the charges against it was the complete absence of any legislation; in 20 months of its rule the government only passed the Finance Act 1989 which was indispensable for the passage of the annual federal budget. One hopes that the record of the present regime will prove somewhat better than past PPP dispensations in this respect.

At the moment, although the current government has no enemies in the country, there is little admiration from friends for its performance.

The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. aJ@Jillani.org

(Dawn)