More Sharia plans in Pakistan

Lawmakers say they are trying to protect decency

The government in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is considering sexual segregation in universities and encouraging men to grow beards, it is reported.

The moves come amid signs of a clash with Pakistan's central government.

On Monday the provincial assembly passed a bill introducing Sharia law in the region, which borders Afghanistan.

It is the first time the strict code, based upon the teachings of the Koran, has been in force in Pakistan.

'Give up bad things'

Plans for separate universities for men and women were disclosed to Reuters news agency by the law minister in NWFP, Zafar Azam.

God is great! God is great!

Ruling party members after vote

Analysis: NWFP's Sharia debate

"Sharia will be the supreme law," Mr Azam told Reuters.

"We will preach to people to adopt good things and give up bad things.

"We will also make laws to persuade youngsters to obey their parents."

The bill gives Sharia precedence over secular provincial law and stipulates that every Muslim will be bound by it.

It proposes restricting the rights of women, and calls for education and financial systems to be brought into line with the teachings of the Koran.

Critics fear a re-run of life under the Taleban, the Islamic hardliners who ruled Afghanistan and drove women and girls out of jobs and schools, back into their homes.

Supporters say all they are trying to do is to curb obscenity and protect human decency.

"We should have the freedom to decide whether we need to work or not."

Meraj Humayun Khan, NGO worker

In pictures

On Monday the federal Minister for Information, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali would soon announce "administrative measures" for NWFP.

He did not specify what they would be.

But NWFP's Chief Minister, Akram Khan Durrani has responded by saying any such moves would be unconstitutional.

Human rights groups have condemned the moves towards Sharia.

The head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Afrasiab Khattak, told the BBC's World Today programme that Pakistan was being pushed towards religious totalitarianism.

Perviz Rafiq, a senior official of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, says he fears the new law would be used to persecute minorities.

"Religion should not interfere with the political affairs of the country," he told the Associated Press.

Since taking power last October the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ruling alliance in NWFP has introduced a number of changes.

Laws have been brought in banning the examination of women by male doctors and forbidding men from coaching women athletes.

The MMA has also ordered civil servants to pray five times a day and curbed the sale of music and videos.

Women's rights

The bill was passed unanimously on Monday by members of the provincial assembly, which is dominated by hardliners.

What's in the bill

No interest payments in banks

More Islamic studies in schools

Administration to be subject to Islamic law

Drive against 'obscenity and vagrancy'

Ban on the display of firearms

Details of the law are vague but observers say it sets the tone for the type of rule the province's people can expect.

Opposition parties tried to water down some of the bill's provisions, including those concerning women's rights, but withdrew amendments in the face of overwhelming odds.

The bill still needs the signature of the provincial governor to become law. Analysts say that is a formality.

The planned creation of a Department of Vice and Virtue has prompted concern among some people who recall Taleban vice squads dispensing summary justice in Afghanistan.

Hardliners have been cracking down on activities they consider un-Islamic since they swept to power in NWFP last October.

Several cinemas have been closed down, and musicians have complained of harassment.

The BBC's Paul Anderson in Islamabad says radicals in the alliance of Islamic parties in power in the province are already using their ideals of Islamic purity and justice as bargaining chips in negotiations with the government to end a constitutional crisis.

Pakistan's federal law enforcers have little jurisdiction over NWFP, which is more strictly conservative than other parts of the country.