Musharraf: A Champion of Women Rights or A Revamped Taliban?

Musharraf wants to visit Washington as a born again ‘enlightened moderate’. To earn some extra good will points, this time around, he is not using his usual approach of conveniently nabbing couple of home-grown or foreign ‘terrorists’ in Pakistan and timing the delayed release of their names and misdeeds in the media at a precise moment while he is on his visit to USA. Instead, he has opted for a different and novel approach.

To refurbish his tarnished credentials after strained relationship with the West on several accounts, he is anxiously waiting to take baptism in the murky waters of the National Assembly and the Senate by passing into law what his able advisers have deftly euphemized as Protection of Women’s Rights (2006) Bill.

An ‘enlightened moderate’ has to be an ardent champion of women’s rights after all.

But he is frustrated and is running out his scanty supply of patience and time because his appointees to the highest posts of the king’s party and government are not giving him results he wants. His schedule to fly to the USA is fast approaching and his ducks to pass the bill have stubbornly refused to get in line.

When the Hudood Ordinance issue came up for discussion for the first time in a meeting, Musharraf asked about the options to deal with it. He was presented with three: (i) not to touch the law and leave it as such (ii) to repeal it altogether, or (iii) to amend it. Musharraf himself was for scraping it altogether through an ordinance and gave orders to the law ministry to do so. But then the Prime Minister met with him and persuaded him to change his mind about repealing it. So it was decided that it must be amended.

Then the pressure started building up from MMA and PML (N) as well as within the ruling party regarding some of the provisions of the bill. The bill was yanked from the national assembly agenda at the eleventh hour, twice. Clause 496(B) was taken out, inserted and then removed again within days of each other under enormous pressure from different sides.

MMA and PML (N) boycotted from day one the select committee of the National Assembly members, calling any effort to temper with the Hudood Ordinance un-Islamic. At least 35 ruling party MNAs including some ministers have expressed their strong reservations to the draft, so far. Fifteen of them have already filed their objections in writing. Even Senator Wasim Sajjad and Senator SM Zafar have spoken against scraping some clauses of the law.

All the players of this latest political circus have aligned themselves into two major factions: Musharraf, ruling PML (Q) minus 35 or so members, PPP and MQM and some other motley liberals and secularists are united on one-point agenda of gaining freedom from any restrictions against their hedonistic proclivities.

The other faction is consisted of the ultra-conservative parties led by MMA who wants to keep a tight lid on all segments of society, especially women, by rigid and ironbound interpretations of all the commandments of the Quran and Sunnah to bolster themselves as the champions of Islamic causes. The whole political spectrum is totally polarized, if not the whole society.

MQM has announced that it will not accept the 'back-door amendments' proposed by ‘an extra-parliamentary' committee - meaning the Ulema c.ommittee. PPP is saying it will wait and see what is in those recommendations before making their next move. PML (N) has already dissociated itself from MMA’s decision to resign if this bill passes into law.

Now, to get it over with, Musharraf has summoned the seaaion of the senate for Tuesday, Sept.12. The National Assembly is to meet one day prior. He will try to ram the bill through both houses within two days, what has Mr. Sher Afgan Niazi has said, ‘at all costs’.

It means, if the draft of the bill is amended from its original form as approved by the PPP-included select committee then MQM and PPP may not vote for its passage. If it is not, then MMA will vote against it. If MMA’s efforts fail to stop this bill passing into law then they will have no choice but to resign or find another excuse not to do it.

Looks like Musharraf, in his attempt to divide the opposition by bringing up this very issue before no-confidence vote against his Prime Minister, ended up dividing its own house against itself.

Now all we have to see is if Musharraf’s effort to revamp himself into a champion of women rights will please his masters in Washington or he will have to face criticism from US media for his recently signed humiliating peace agreement with Pakistani Taliban.