Baluchistan to Table Shari’ah Bill
19 June 2003
After the North West Frontier Province’s adoption of Shari’ah,
Baluchistan is
set to follow suit.
Chief Minister of Baluchistan, Jam Mohammad Yousaf, announced on
Sunday June 15
in Quetta that a committee is preparing to table a Shari’ah
bill in the
provincial assembly. The committee represents the parties that
form the
coalition government in Baluchistan, but the move to introduce
Shari’ah (Islamic
Law) comes from the hard-line Islamist party Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.
Its
leader, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, said that Muslims should
not oppose the
bill.
This announcement follows the party’s victory in pushing a
Shari’ah bill through
the provincial assembly in North West Frontier Province. If
Baluchistan votes to
pass their bill then half of Pakistan’s four provinces will
be governed
according to Shari’ah. It is likely to be only a matter of
time before the
remaining two provinces, Punjab and Sind, go down the same route.
The prospect for the approximately 3 million Christians, and
other minorities,
in a Pakistan ruled according to Shari’ah is grim indeed. In
Baluchistan itself
there are only 20,000 Christians, however Chief Minister Yousaf
said there would
be no harm done by introducing Shari’ah to Baluchistan,
because “we are all
Muslims and being Muslim we should follow Shari’ah.”
PRAY
Pray for Christians already under Shari’ah in North
West Frontier Province,
whose rights and freedoms are drastically reduced.
Pray against the spread of Shari’ah to other provinces.
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