While the religious political parties had been agitating for the conversion of Pakistan into an Islamic state right from the time of independence, but was not fully successful till 1979, When General Zia ul haq came in to power. However after having said that, we are not establishing a fact that previous governments were innocent, they did use the religious card when ever it suited them. Previous regimes did leave the conducive environment where Zia-ul-Haq (the military dictator) was able to spread his ideologies .The following examples would illustrate this point.
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Islam was used for political purposes for the first time (after the creation of Pakistan) by Field Martial, General Ayub Khan. Before the regimes of Z.A. Bhutto and Zia ul Haq, however, Ayub Khan, the president of Pakistan during the period 1958-69, encouraged women to explore new possibilities in the fields of education and work and had an aversion to the reactionary element, holding it responsible for the backwardness of the masses and the country. One significant step taken during his regime was the enactment of the Family Laws Ordinance 1961. The main aim of the Ordinance was to discourage polygamy and to regulate divorce by prescribing procedures for men and women, compulsory registration of all marriages and a standard marriage contract. The Ordinance provided for punishment if a husband remarried without the permission of either the first wife or the arbitration council.
A significant clause of the Ordinance pertained to the increase in age at marriage. The Ordinance raised the minimum marriageable age of girls from 14 to 16 and of boys from 18 to 21 years (Mumtaz and Shaheed, 1987:57-59). On the other hand, the inheritance laws soon after independence continued to operate with in the Islamic framework, where in only women's share of property was half that of men. Not only that, these laws clearly affected only women from propertied classes. More importantly, the inheritance laws followed by Family Law Ordinance contained no sanctions if abused nor did the Family law focus on the problem of the family as a critical site for reproduction of gendered ideology.
He definitely brought many progressive laws in favor of Women specially his Family laws are still part of the constitution but however when the question of women being the head of the state came up he too colluded with the Jamat-e- Islami and declared women cannot be the head of the state. Therefore there were many contradictions in his theory and practice.
At one level Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was considered as a very progressive leader and was very popular amongst the masses With his socialist' ideas of roti, kapra and makan , Bhutto raised consciousness among the poor sections of the society which were in the clutches of the feudal families, and during his time women were given positions in the civil administration and were also declared eligible for foreign services
But he too colluded with the fundamentalists and used Islamic symbols to remain in power. For insistence, he declared Friday as the weekly holiday. His foreign policy included close ties with Saudia Arabia. In 1973 he hosted the Islamic summit. Bhutto declared Ahmadis as non muslim.Thus Bhutto also used Islam when it suited his political purposes. Although Bhutto in order to remain in power initiated certain reforms which stressed egalitarianism and social justice under the Islamic slogans, there were contradictions and ambiguities in his policies.
Two years after the overthrow of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in a military coup, that the process of Islamization based on the pure Muslim law was formally implemented by General Zia-ul-Haq. The military dictator, who had deposed a popularly elected prime minister and had him executed through the manipulation of the judicial process, was looking for legitimating of a one-man rule and power under political and strategic compulsions.
The task was accomplished by using Islam through the implementation of Shariat law before the restoration of democracy. It meant the dismantling of the entire legal structures under which the country's civil institutions had operated since colonial times. Concurrently, the Islamization process was also to involve regulation of all aspects of social and economic life, from personal morality to civic rights, encapsulated within ethno-religious and gender equality. Not to mention that Islam was already disciplining the lives of the entire Muslim populace in Pakistan and during and after the Islamization process, most of the social problems Ziaul Haq had set out to resolve through Islam are still present multiplied. And the MMA is furthering his ideology.
In July 1977, the advent of General Zia-ul-Haq martial law regime marked the beginning of a serious reversal of women’s rights and status. General Zia wanted to become the champion of Islamic world, so he joined hands with Saudia Arabia, and openly helped Afghanistan during the Afghan war. To remain in power, he desperately sought the support of the right- hand religious parties. As Rouse says, Islamic fundamentalists have never been able to win single elections. Hence they devised alternative strategies to infiltrate the state bureaucracy and military in order to legitimize their positions within the formal state apparatuses. What they could not achieve through elections they attempted to secure by coming in through the back door. Their agenda coincided with the agenda of the Zia (Rouse, 1988:55).
The gentry and the feudal lords found this period useful as the previous regime has raised awareness of economic and political rights among the poorer sections of society. This had led to new ideas of democratization, which were seen as a threat to traditional structures of power and wealth in feudal society.
Zia’s period also curtailed a number of rights that woman had previously possessed. Chaddar and Chardewar'i which constituted purdah were proclaimed as the “Islamic norm for women. During this period women’s bodies became the targets of a number of highly repressive and retrogressive laws. Under the impetus of Islamisation, laws were introduced which greatly reduced women’s legal status. In the social sphere, General Zia introduced policies that segregated women from men in public life (Shaheed, 1990:11). He also introduced the parallel legal system by instituting the Federal Shariat Court. This Court and the appellant Shariat bench that was given enormous powers and could even overrule the Supreme Court . That Zia used religion selectively is clearly seen. For instance, the fiscal policy of the country did not fall under the Federal Shariat Court where as all issues related to women fell under the jurisdiction of this court. “The criteria of selection and implementation of true Islam is the crucial area of man woman relations rather than the more general theological issues” (Chhachi, 1988:15).
Zia's regime also contained its own contradictions: being heavily dependent on aid and given the push by international agencies for incorporation of women in development, for the first time in Pakistan's history, a women's division was set up, headed by a woman activist, committed to undertaking serious research on gender. A space was created during this time and continues even today for professional women to be co-opted by the state through grants for development projects while at the same time they themselves alongside other Pakistani women loose many of the limited rights granted to them previously.
Such anti-women attitudes, which were already present in the Pakistani society, were forcefully propagated and were given disproportionate support during the Ziaul Haq regime through the immense social and political power given to the fundamentalist leaders, especially the Jamaat-i-Islami, which had a well-networked party.
When Zia-ul-Haq announced the process of Islamization, his model of Islamization was based on the teachings of a veteran theologian, Maulana Maududi, also the chief of Jamaat-i-Islami (Party of Islam), who had authority over the other Maulanas in the Sunni sect and was ideologically linked with the Wahabi ruling elite in Saudi Arabia (Baxter, 1985). His model is considered to be purist and the most reactionary, in that it proposed to establish a society similar to the society in the Medina of Mohammed around 621 A.D. It calls for the spread of Islam from above through force.
The Jamaat-e-Islami and other reactionary political parties strongly support complete segregation of the sexes and the subordination of women to men. They uphold the ideology that a woman's place is within the four walls of the house and that women should be banned from entering any public or political domain (Maududi, 1987). They believe that women, being the source of most social ills, should be barred from taking part in decision-making process at any level; that women cannot keep a secret, are physically weaker than men, are vulnerable during menstruation, and were created for the pleasure of men and procreation (Maududi, 1987:149)
After the sudden death of Zia-ul-Haq in 1988, Benazir Bhutto's party came into power pledging to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. However, before any such actions could be taken or policies formulated to ameliorate the status of women, her government was dismissed on the 6th of August 1991 by president Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
The president did so legally through the Eighth Amendment, which gave the president the executive power to dissolve the parliament any time and call for fresh elections. Thereafter, Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as the prime minister on the 6th of November 1991. In less than two years, Nawaz Sharif's government was ousted, owing to continuing differences between him, the then Chief of the Army Staff and the president who once again used the executive power to dissolve the parliament. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and Nawaz Sharif's powers as the prime minister were restored.( drawn from Jennifer Bennett unpublished paper)
However, continued differences between Nawaz Sharif, the army and the president led to marathon talks between them, resulting in voluntary resignation of the prime minister on the condition that Ishaq Khan steps down as the president of Pakistan. New elections took place and, once again, Benazir Bhutto became the prime minister in October 1993.
Military coup took place in 1999 and general Musharaff came in to power and there by Mr. Nawaz Sharif the than prime minister was ousted. However, in 2002 great referendum took place. This was the 3rd referendum in the history of Pakistan, which had gone beyond the actual spirit of the constitution. Military dictators have always come in to power first by bringing the coup and than using referendum for electing themselves as presidents of the country. Ayub khan the military dictator brought the question of referendum under the banner of basic democracies, Zia used religion and held referendum for that purpose and Musharraf was convinced that a sham referendum represents the only route to genuine democracy (taken from the News Paper). In spite of reservation referendum did take place and general was elected as the president.
How ever the general elections took place on October 10th 2002 and for the first time in the history of Pakistan Six political parties combined as (united action front) The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (Religious party) joined hands and won elections and resumed power in Balochistan and NWFP respectively.) They won 45 of 272 of the General seats in the National Assembly.
After coming in to power the first point of departure for MMA was making Muslims more Muslims and reinforcing, and pursuing the same ideology what late Zia ul Haq left. The main agenda since they came in power was advocating for complete Sharia to be introduced and certain directives were passed where special emphasis was given on women’s position in Islam, much closer to Madudis definition of women’s role quoted earlier in this paper.
One of the main reasons for the victory of the religious groups in Frontier and Balochistan was the US led war in Afghanistan. These parties were able to get the support of youth, and lowering of the voting age from 21 years to 18 years almost certainly benefited these political parties who can mobilize the sizeable student bodies of the affiliated madras’s.
As soon they resumed the office MMA government advocated hadood ordinances and were totally against its repeal which was put forward by the women’s commission, Musaraff announced for removing the column which indicated the religion in the Pakistani passports (of course his agenda was to show liberal, and modern Islamic state) but had to reiterate from its earlier statement.
MMA further advocated for hisba Act Morality check, which reduces all the fundamentals rights of the citizens is greatly detrimental for women, and suggestion was given that it should become a law fortunately the Supreme Court showed its reservation and therefore it is not enacted as a law.
However some amendments have been made under the Law of Qasis and Diyat but by in large the law remains the same.
However at one level MMA are demanding complete segregation of women from public space on the other hand their women are sitting in the Parliament, but promoting the same rhetoric and emphasizing the role of women in an Islamic society. Here again contradictions in policy and theory is seen. They are also using Islamic card when ever they want they bring culture and traditions and mix it with the Islamic values.
Musharraf on the other hand is wearing two hats which are greatly detested by the opposition and other political parties and also by civil society. His war against terrorism is posing serious threat to people in Pakistan.
So at one level we have control of the religious groups sitting in the parliament and on the other hand we have the General sitting in power with two hats and talking about Moderate Islam, which is also a quest to remain in power.
Conclusion
Pakistan from its creation till today has witnessed various regimes. Unfortunately there were less democratic governments and more Military dictators which ruled the country. But in reality both the elected governments and the Military dictators have used religion to gain power and they have done so by colluding with the bureaucrats, feudal lords and the Muslim clerics.