Pakistan Moves Toward Full Islamic Law

NEW DELHI —  Pakistan’s parliament on Friday took the first step in approving a law that would make it easier for the government to impose Islam in daily life, a proposal that is threatening to drive the world’s newest nuclear power toward political chaos.

The measure, pushed through the lower house by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, makes the Koran the supreme law of Pakistan and grants the government powers to enforce it. To become part of the constitution, the bill must also be passed in the upper house, where Sharif’s supporters and opponents appear evenly split.

Pakistan, whose population is 97% Muslim, is already an Islamic republic. Many aspects of its public life, including a separate legal system, are explicitly Islamic. However, many of the country’s laws are still secular, and there are legal protections for minorities.

Human rights groups and moderates worry that the bill will lead to laws compelling women to wear veils and to draconian physical punishments.

“I am not against an Islamic state,” said former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party. She went on to refer to the hard-line Islamic leaders of neighboring Afghanistan, saying, “I’m against a Taliban-like state.”

Analysts in the United States said the proposed law could lead to a curtailment of civil liberties.

“The problem with this kind of law is it leaves the legal basis for the country very confused,” said Paula R. Newberg, the author of a book on Pakistan’s constitution. “Courts will go from pillar to post trying to interpret this, and that has always meant in Pakistani terms that people’s rights will be violated.”

The most sweeping measures of the bill approved Friday were removed before it was put to a vote, including one that would have allowed amendments to the constitution on a simple majority vote of parliament.

Still, the Islamic plan has driven a wedge between the Islamabad government and the military--the most powerful institution in Pakistan--which fears that Sharif is using religion as a cover to gather more authority for himself.

Earlier this week, the country’s army chief, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, resigned after criticizing Sharif’s plan and advocating a direct role for the military in running the country. Two more generals followed suit Thursday.

In a speech this week, Karamat criticized the “insecurity-driven expedient policies” of the Sharif government.

Karamat’s resignation represented a temporary victory for the prime minister but heightened the sense of instability that has long plagued this impoverished nation of 135 million people. The army has ruled Pakistan for much of the 51 years since independence, and recent crises have fueled speculation that democracy in Pakistan is endangered.

The sparring between soldiers and civilians is unfolding against a backdrop of social and economic collapse.

Pakistan’s economy has been veering toward the brink since May, when the country’s nuclear tests sparked worldwide condemnation and prompted the U.S. to impose economic sanctions. Since then, the Karachi Stock Exchange has dropped 40%, and the currency, the rupee, has declined in value by a third. The prices of some basic goods, such as gasoline, have shot up by as much 25%. Hard-currency reserves have fallen so low that government officials have warned that Pakistan may have to default on its $30-billion foreign debt.

As the economy implodes, Sharif is feeling growing pressure from fundamentalists who say his government has caved in to the West.

The Islamic hard-liners have warned Sharif against signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would oblige Pakistan to refrain from further nuclear testing. Pakistan’s signature on the treaty would also probably prompt the U.S. to lift the sanctions. Sharif has said he is willing to sign the treaty, but so far no deal has been struck.

Sharif’s government is also presiding over a disintegrating law-and-order situation, particularly in Karachi, the country’s largest city. Rioting this week in Karachi, where armed factions are battling for control, killed two political leaders, two police officers and at least three civilians. More than 600 people have died in violence there this year.

The Islamic bill, which seeks to enforce the Koran and Sunnah--the sayings of the prophet Muhammad--as the supreme law of Pakistan, has dominated public debate since Sharif announced it in late August.

Sharif says the bill is aimed at enlisting Islam in the fight against crime and corruption.

“We are a liberal Muslim government,” Information Minister Mushahid Hussain said. “We are not fundamentalist.”

Times staff writer Bob Drogin in Washington and special correspondent Kamal Siddiqi in Karachi contributed to this report.