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Hudood changes make waves

Nirupama Subramanian

— PHOTO: AFP

RELISHING CHANGE: The passage of the women's bill being celebrated in Karachi on Friday.

ISLAMABAD: Riled over the adoption of a new law to protect women from the discriminatory procedures of the Hudood ordinances, Pakistan's religious Opposition has announced its decision to resign from the National Assembly. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six religious parties, has 66 parliamentarians in the 342-member House.

Analysts say if the MMA carries out the decision to resign taken by the coalition at a meeting of its "supreme council" on Thursday, it could trigger an early election. General elections are due next November.

It is significant that the MMA has given itself a three-week window until a meeting of its parliamentary party on December 6 and 7, when it says it will implement the decision.

President of the MMA Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who is also the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, said at a press conference the coalition's parliamentarians had already submitted their resignations to him.

The MMA has several times in the past threatened resignation from the National Assembly, but at the last hour, found a way not to carry it out. The most recent instance came following the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Though there is a bit of "the boy who cried wolf" about the MMA's threat, this time, the coalition does seem to be perturbed at the direct manner in which President Pervez Musharraf has apparently taken them on.

In an address to the nation following the adoption of the Bill, Gen. Musharraf said "religious extremists" were trying to mislead the people by saying the law was against Islam. He heaped praise on Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party for supporting the Bill in Parliament.

Adding to all the political roiling, the Government has submitted another draft Bill to Parliament that proposes to end practices such as honour killings, exchange marriages, giving girls away in marriage to settle murder disputes, and the marriage of girls to the Koran. The Pakistan Muslim League president described the Bill as a follow-up to the Women's Protection Bill.

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