General Zia's Legacy

The News, July 9, 2006
Nibbling at Zia's legacy
Ghazi Salahuddin

We now know that all it took to allow women imprisoned in cases other than murder and terrorism to get bail was for the president to sign an ordinance. This happened on Friday. President General Pervez Musharraf promulgated an ordinance that would facilitate the release of women detained on various charges including under the Hudood Ordinance. Reports said that this would lead to immediate release of 1,300 female prisoners. However, the total number of women in Pakistan's prisons was said to be more than 6,000.

How does one respond to this development that has been heralded as "historic" by Women Development and Youth Affairs Minister Sumaira Malik? Yes, the occasion does call for some sense of relief. Any forward movement in the long struggle for the emancipation of our women is to be applauded. But if you look at the entire circumstances in which this step has been taken, it is hard to dispel the impression that this has come rather late in the day and the battle to remove all discriminatory laws against women, mostly enforced in the name of religion, is unfinished.

And while the luminaries of the present government sing their own praises for this "momentous legislation in the country's history for the protection of women's rights and interests", it would be instructive to look at, for instance, the history of the Hudood Ordinance and refer to individual cases of heartbreaking injustice meted out to scores of women. In this respect, we need to go back to the long night of General Ziaul Haq's rule and the distortions that his brand of Islamisation had planted in the country's body politic.

Yes, Zia had promulgated the Hudood Ordinance on February 10, 1979. This was his gift to the nation on the auspicious occasion of Eid-e-Milad. Hence, the controversies that this law had generated have survived for more than 27 -- yes, twenty-seven -- years. During this period, women organisations and human rights activists have bravely campaigned for the repeal of the Hudood Ordinance and we have some inspiring images of women being lathi-charged by the police during their protest.

My purpose here is not to focus on the history of the Hudood Ordinance and on how the forces of obscurantism were allowed to prevail by the powers that be. Against the backdrop of Friday's legislation, I feel concerned about the pace of change in our society at a time when we are surrounded by great upheavals as well as revolutionary challenges. We should also blame the civilian interlude of the nineties for not being able to set the direction of our social change. But the great responsibility of correcting the wrongs that his military predecessor had committed certainly rests on the shoulders of Musharraf.

After all, he arrived on the scene with an implicit promise to do all this. There was even that spirited evocation of the spirit of Ataturk. After the U-turn that was dictated by 9/11, the logic for 'enlightened moderation' was strategically reinforced. So, how should one rate Musharraf's performance with particular reference to dealing with Zia's legacy? Does it matter that he has chosen Zia's son as a minister in the federal cabinet?

If you allow Muhammad Ali Durrani or Sumaira Malik to pass the judgment, they might argue that a new era of enlightenment and emancipation of women has already been launched. And they may suggest that this has happened only after they took charge of their present portfolios in the federal cabinet. Sumaira Malik has argued that under the leadership of President Musharraf, the "misconception of gender bias in Pakistan should now end". The idea is to stress that an amendment in a clause of the Criminal Procedure Code that relates to grant of bail to women languishing in jail is a decisive turning point in the struggle for women's rights.

Be that as it may, the simple fact is that Friday's ordinance has come just three months before Musharraf will complete his seven years in power. And, significantly, it has come in the wake of an intense and meticulously designed campaign against the un-Islamic features of the Hudood Ordinance by Geo TV. The Zara Sochieye campaign glaringly highlighted some heartbreaking tales of women persecuted under this law. Some cases covered by the electronic media and the judicial activism of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had set the stage for the jolt that was delivered by Zara Sochieye.

Incidentally, the campaign has also underlined the power of the electronic media. Otherwise, social activists had been presenting their case for so many years and the message didn't seem to get through to the ordinary people. In that sense, the performance of the independent electronic media demands a serious scrutiny in the same manner that we need to look at what the Musharraf regime has achieved in the cause of not only the liberation of women but also in raising awareness for 'enlightened moderation'.

One problem is that while the thrust of historical forces tends to prescribe a liberal and democratic dispensation, religious extremism has flourished in recent years. Whatever the reasons, we now have to contend with an unprecedented number of representatives of religious parties in the parliament. Meanwhile, the anomaly of the president wearing his army uniform is a burden that Pakistan cannot carry for long.

All this and I have not alluded to crucial developments that are taking place in the political arena. When we contemplate the direction of social change in Pakistan, emancipation of women being its foundation, the imperative for democracy becomes obvious. As promised elections draw closer, the tempo is bound to rise. The alliance forged by the two former prime ministers reflects the realisation that overt or covert intervention by the military has been the bane of our political existence.

This also means that the present arrangement, irrespective of its fitful attempts to endorse an enlightened approach, is fatally flawed. Its capacity to resolve fundamental conflicts in our society is severely restricted. And its authority is seen to be diminishing at a steady pace. A sense of confusion within the ruling coalition has been brought to light by some recent statements of the president himself. "If people want my leadership, they should cast vote in favour of my supporters", is the latest message that he has delivered with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain standing by his side.

The lines, thus, are being drawn between the supporters of Musharraf, including those who changed their loyalties after the elections of 2002, and his opponents. But some other lines that are to be engraved in the hearts and minds of the people are also important. It is in this respect that we should return to the Friday ordinance and measure its meaning and its impact. Unfortunately, the task of erasing the dark legacy of General Zia has not yet begun in earnest.

The writer is a staff member. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com