Sherry Rehman MNA, Chairperson, Central Policy Planning, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) giving her statement on Hasba Bill here on Wednesday said that the Hasba Bill represents a full frontal attack on Pakistan as a moderate Muslim state.
She states, 'It is a concerted political confrontation by orthodox forces to challenge the essence of the Pakistani State and its project as envisioned by its founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who saw Pakistan as a nation-state where the Muslim majorities of the Indian sub-continent could live in peace, security and prosperity.'
She further said 'At no point was the state ever supposed to become a theocracy, which is what this push is about. In such an arrangement, Islamist rightists would gain ascendancy, and enforce an intolerant version of Islam where pious statements would mask a naked greed for power and arbitrary interference in the fundamental human rights of the individual and justice system of the state.
"The Hasba Bill is indirect violation of the Constitution of Pakistan, which provides very clearly in Article 20 for every citizen to have the freedom to profess, practice and propagate her religion".
"The plan to impose a Mohtasib or Ombudsman, whose word is above all law points to the totalitarian intent of the Hasba Bill, which would then seek to talibanise Pakistani society though a culture of repression and violence against women, as has been the case in all cultures, where such laws have been enforced. Afghanistan and Nigeria have both experimented disastrously with such laws".
"In letter they profess to protect women and minorities, but in spirit and enforcement, they will create a web of dictatorial practices in society, condoning a culture of Vice and Virtue Policing, making violent and unconscionable intrusions into the lives of individuals, focusing on the vulnerable groups who are already under pressure by laws made and enforced under the name of Islam.
'If the NWFP government was sincere about providing relief to the people, it would have launched a campaign against poverty, hunger, disease and inequality. Islam enjoins tolerance, peace and equality for opportunity for all, which amounts in this day and age to full employment and the rights to social services and education.
'But instead of worrying about these primary goals that are universal to humanity the NWFP government has chosen to divert attention from its own failure in attaining any of these goals to embroil Pakistani society in a pointless debate about Hasba and virtue policing.
"The Hasba Bill has rightly been condemned by all sections of civil society, political forces outside the religious parties and even institutions such as the Council of Islamic Ideology. What has a government or a Mohtasib got to do with the way people live? Nothing, about 27 special powers have been given to the Mohtasib in order to regulate the powers and lives of citizens that would violate directly the right of the individual.
"The creation of the Hasba Police isn't about enforcing Islam, as Pakistan is not just home to Sunni Muslims, but Shia Muslims, as well as, minorities. It is about assuming wide-ranging, controversial powers that are directly in contradiction not only with the spirit of Islam but also the practice of democracy as well as the fundamental human rights enshrined in the Constitution.
"If the MMA was so committed to its version of intolerant Islam it would have uniformly enforced it on the military, as well as, attempted its introduction in the National Assembly. Since the Hasba Bill is clearly a political move to gain control over the lives and minds of people, and to divert attention from real issues, its backers have not even attempted to bring it up at the Centre where it will be challenged and soundly defeated."