The Hindu : Now, Punjab is their target

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 07, 2003

International

International

Now, Punjab is their target

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD JUNE 6. After the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the religious extremist elements in Pakistan have set their sights on Punjab province to ``cleanse'' it of ``obscenity''.

According to these zealots, advertising billboards featuring women are ``obscene'' and ``anti-Islamic''. According to reports reaching from city of Multan in Punjab, activists of a sister organisation of Jamait-e-Islami (JI) smeared billboards featuring women with black paint.

About 200 members of Shabab-e-Milli, the youth faction of the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party, smeared billboards featuring women with black paint, as police watched as mute spectators.Similar scenes in Peshawar, capital of NWFP, last week have been a cause of serious concern to the Pervez Musharraf-Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali Government. Gen. Musharraf is particularly worried over the developing situation, as he is all set to embark on a crucial visit to the United States in the next fortnight.

On Thursday, Mr. Jamali had called the NWFP Chief Minister to express his unhappiness over the recent developments. Responding to the Prime Minister's concerns the Frontier Government today initiated disciplinary action against the Peshawar Superintendent of Police and other officials concerned for their failure to stop the religious zealots from defacing the billboards.

But the simple truth is that it was the activists of the ruling combine in the Frontier who were behind the acts of vandalism and the action against the officials is seen as an ``eye wash''.

The Jamali Government has also been unhappy over the passage of the Shariat Bill by the Frontier Government and its decision to introduce a ``vice and virtue'' department on the lines of the Taliban. But Mr. Jamali is in no position to tell the Frontier Government to withhold the Bill for fear of antagonising the rightwing lobby.As a consequence, the Union and the Provincial governments have been engaged in a proxy war through the nazims (equivalent to zilla parishad chiefs elected in the partyless elections conducted by Gen. Musharraf). All the nazims have submitted their resignations to Gen. Musharraf accusing the Frontier Government of trampling on their powers.

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