Following advisory recommendations by Supreme Court, the NWFP government has constituted a committee within its Law Department to re-examine the controversial Hisbah Bill. The NWFP Law Minister, Zafar Azam Khan, asked the Law Secretary to immediately have a 'damage management committee' in place to study the five sections hit by the Court's short order, and prepare corrective notes.
Those parts of the law deal with the appointments of the executioners of the Bill and the scope of their operations coming to grips with the national constitution.
The committee, which includes senior draftsmen of the Department, will prepare recommendations but hold them in abeyance till detailed determination on the Presidential Reference is announced by the Supreme Court.
The NWFP Chief Minister, Akram Durrani, also seemed unperturbed by the Supreme Court short order.
Although MMA senior leadership like Fazlul-ur-Rahman has accepted the adverse recommendation, it seemed satisfied that the Court had not thrown out their effort lock, stock and barrel.
The party wants a revised and more specifically worded bill to be presented and passed before the local government elections. The quick work might help the MMA to prove that it had not been put in a cul-de-sac, that the damage was minor and the conglomerate of religious parties was in earnest to introduce Islamic code of life in the province under its control.
But this would only be possible if the Supreme Court makes public its advisory to the President within a week or so.
The Provincial Law Minister returned to Peshawar on Thursday and briefed the Chief Minister that the situation was not disappointing.
This was the view he had expressed soon after the Supreme Court's announcement when he said that it had not done any damage to the body of the law and its frame still stood in tact. In his opinion, the Court had only disapproved of 25 percent of the 'law' and that could be rectified.
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