Pak. initiative to gloss over embarrassment

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 3. On the eve of the departure of the Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to New York to take part in the millennium United Nations Assembly session, the Pakistani Military Government has announced two major initiatives.

A draft unveiled by the Information Minister, Mr. Javed Jabbar, on ``freedom of information'' and the constitution of a Commission on Status of Women are perhaps intended to send a signal to the world that the military government is way ahead of the civilian set-up in responding to the concerns of women and civil rights activists.

It would, however, require a great deal of convincing on the part of the Musharraf Government, particularly after it beat a hasty retreat on the blasphemy law. Under pressure from the religious lobby, Gen. Musharraf dropped the proposal for changes in the procedure for registration of blasphemy cases.

There have been complaints galore of potential misuse of the blasphemy law particularly against minorities. Gen. Musharraf announced at a human rights convention here the changes proposed to make the procedure for registration of blasphemy cases fool- proof but within no time he went back on the move.

Thus the latest initiatives are seen as an attempt to overcome the embarrassment on the blasphemy law and demonstrate to the rest of the world the military government's good intentions.

The Commission on Status of Women has been entrusted with looking at the problems of women and making recommendations for remedial action. However, critics have pointed out that in the absence of legislative powers the new body would be a toothless tiger.

One of the most important challenges that faces the Commission is the phenomenon of ``honour killings''. Newspapers are replete with reports from all four provinces on killing of women by their kith and kin on charges of illicit affairs.

The draft ordinance on freedom of information is supposed to demonstrate the intent of the military regime to provide transparent governance. It is a replica of an earlier ordinance which lapsed in 1997 and the Nawaz Sharif government never bothered to enact a new law in its place despite having made promises from time to time.

Under the proposed law, any citizen could have access to a public record on his applying to the authority concerned. However, care has been taken to ensure that ``classified information'' and ``information in the national interest'' are not passed on to the public. Still the proposal is considered an improvement over the existing system, under which no citizen has access to any public record.

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