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Pakistan: Repercussions of 'vice and virtue' Bill

Source: 
WLUML
A WLUML networker responds to recent news that the provincial assembly of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) passed the Hasba Bill to suppress vice, with a unit led by a cleric and a police force to implement its orders.
She confirms that this has enabled the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA-ruling party in NWFP) government to put a powerful network into place that will play a crucial role in aiding the success of religious parties in future elections.
As soon as the Bill was passed, two girls’ schools and a boarding house for female teachers were closed down. A driver, transporting female teachers also received threats.

This law seeks to set up a department and a police force whose duty it will be to enforce Islamic morality. By appointing ombudsmen at various levels of government to 'enforce virtue' and 'prohibit vice' it establishes what looks like a parallel judicial system in the province. It is termed as institutionalizing the clergy in the province.
Related info/URLs: 
Islamic coalition pushes anti-vice department in Pakistan
Tuesday November 14, 2006 - The Guardian

According to the legislation, the department would help fight government corruption, eliminate child labour, and ensure rights for women and religious minorities. The assembly passed a similar bill last year despite central government opposition, but the provincial governor refused to sign it into law, saying it aimed to set up a parallel police system.
Submitted on Sat, 11/18/2006 - 00:00
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