With Pakistan isolated and near economic collapse, its leader plays the religion card

IT'S BECOME A HABIT IN PAKISTAN THAT WHENEVER a ruler's popularity disintegrates, he or she begins waving the scimitar of Islam. Never mind that not once since Pakistan became a nation 51 years ago has this noisy brandishing of faith ever worked to bolster the leader's popularity. Now, with Pakistan ostracized after its nuclear tests and on the edge of economic collapse, Prime Minister Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif is reviving the old custom of trying to make the Islamic Republic of Pakistan even more Islamic than it already is.

Even in the best of times, the implementation of Shari'a, or Islamic law, led to quarreling among the country's 72 Muslim sects and subsects over the "pure" interpretation of the law. And this could be the worst of times for Pakistan to try to revive fundamentalist laws. Everything seems to be going wrong for Nawaz Sharif. His support of the Taliban militia in neighboring Afghanistan has drawn enmity from Iran and the Central Asian republics. India and Pakistan have intensified their cross-border artillery fire in disputed Kashmir. Nearly bankrupt, Pakistan may run out of foreign exchange by the end of the month, and the Karachi stock exchange imploded after the May 28 underground nuclear tests, wiping out half its share value.

Will a stronger dose of religion cure Pakistan's ills? Many of Nawaz Sharif's countrymen think it could send Pakistan into terminal decline. According to the well-respected Karachi newspaper Dawn, people "just want a little improvement in their lives from the tyranny and callousness of Pakistani officialdom." Political opponents, including, of course, ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, say the new Islamic bill is likely to increase that tyranny. One interpretation holds that this amendment will anoint Nawaz Sharif as a religious dictator, a supreme arbiter of what is considered good and evil under Islam. Nawaz Sharif, though, contends that only a strict adherence to Shari'a--which relies on the Koran and on the Sunna, a record of the Prophet Muhammad's deeds and sayings--can save Pakistan from "corruption and maladministration."

If Nawaz Sharif succeeds in driving his Islamic bill through both the National Assembly and the Senate, Pakistan, long a reliable U.S. ally in South Asia, will become one of the world's most severe Islamic states. Among Muslim nations, only Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan observe the undiluted Islamic law. This code of justice punishes a thief with amputation, an adulterer with a public flogging and a blasphemer with execution; a man can rid himself of a wife merely by saying "I divorce thee" three times. The more moderate Islamic states apply Shari'a to family and religion but not to legal and state matters. Take beards, for example: in Afghanistan, members of the ruling Taliban militia will grasp a passerby's facial hair in their fist. If the beard is shorter than the Taliban's fist, the offender is publicly whipped. But in Iran, Shi'ite Muslims believe that according to the Koran, a beard can be a stubbly 1 cm long.

Faced with protests from opposition parties and Islamic scholars, Nawaz Sharif may back down. If he insists on unleashing religious fervor in Pakistan, he could end up one of its first victims, because not all Islamic radicals trust his credentials. Says Maulana Fazl ul Rehman, leader of the militant Jamiat-Ulema-Islami party: "Nawaz Sharif's government is part of the same corrupt system he hopes to overthrow. Only we are the true devotees who will enforce Islam."

Questions

1. What is Shari'a?

2. What arguments have been made for and against observing Shari'a in Pakistan?

Answers

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