'Shariah rule will further nurture sectarianism in NWFP'

Lahore, Jan 25 : Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has described North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Government's plan to promulgate regulation for law enforcement through Qazi courts in its Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), as an attempt by the military to instigate sectarianism and war-lordship.

The PATA includes Swat, Dir and Chitral districts of NWFP.

"But to control territory in the name of Islam by nurturing sectarianism and creating religious differences through the Shariah," said Hina Jilani, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Punjab province.

"This proposed judicial system is not related to the mainstream judicial system. It is clearly contradictory to the 1973 Constitution, particularly Article 227," the Daily Times quoted Jilani , as saying.

She said the people of PATA would be weakened politically as well as psychologically by these kinds of regulations.

"It is time for the Pakistan Army to confess," she said, "the militants it is fighting in PATA were once its partners."

Jilani said to enforce Islamic regulations at this time would further strengthen a "judicial system of the rule of terror."

"This is not a fight for Islam but for territorial control and political power perpetrated by warlords in the name of Islam, with the army aiming to assert its own control over them," said Jillani.

"The Shariah seems to be a tool for certain elements to gain political power in the areas in the name of Islam, for which they have been extending partnerships to General Zia ul Haq, Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf," she concluded.

ANI