Daily Times: The PML-N’s rise to power has brought back, to some extent, the straitjacket religiosity of General Zia’s dark years in power. The ministry of religious affairs, in the beginning of this Ramzan, was pleased draw the attention of the public to the ‘Ehteram-e-Ramzan Ordinance 1981’ (the Respect of Ramzan Ordinance) and remind the public that it was unlawful to eat, drink or smoke publicly during the holy month.
The Ehteram-e-Ramzan Ordinance is one of the many incomprehensible laws that General Ziaul Haq’s unconstitutional and illegal regime inflicted upon Pakistan, which no one has dared to challenge on the touchstone of the constitution of Pakistan. It is a pointless law that has no precedent in Islamic history but perhaps is very similar to the Sabbath laws of Jews and Christians, which at one point enjoyed state sanction in many secular western nations including the US. Most of these states have since then repealed these laws or have made them redundant.
The law states that any person who is under obligation to fast is not allowed to eat, drink or smoke in public. Now this in itself creates two exceptions: the first would be a person who is not under obligation i.e. a person who is either a non-Muslim, is sick, is elderly or is a woman who may be menstruating. However, the application of this law has more often than not targetted non-Muslims because, in practical terms, it is impossible to tell whether a person is ‘under obligation’ to ‘fast’ just by looking at the person. The second exception is for those people under obligation to not eat, drink or smoke in public. So, in other words, it is okay for a person under obligation to fast to eat, drink and smoke so long as he or she does it privately. Now the logical extension of this would be that a person not under obligation can eat, drink or smoke as he or she pleases. It goes without saying that this legal freedom is not honoured by the police who target the poorest of the poor in enforcing this law. It is quite the sight seeing labourers being hauled into jail for a mere drink of water during these extremely hot months of June and July.
Then there is the obvious question of whether or not the state has any right, constitutionally, legally or morally to determine who is under an obligation to fast or not. Pakistan’s constitution, in terms of its relationship with Islam, is an enabling and not an enforcing constitution. The state is required to enable Muslims to live Islamic lives but not to force them to do so. No article of the constitution empowers the state to force people to pray, fast or live according to the injunctions of Islam. Hence the question of whether a person is under any obligation to fast or not is a matter between him and God, and not between the state and the citizen.
When General Zia took over in 1977, he introduced the myth that the objective of the Pakistani state was the Islamisation of culture and society. Himself a pious but simple Muslim, the Mard-e-Momin also tried very fervently to change Pakistan’s Independence Day from August 14 to the 27th day of Ramzan. It was a most pathetic attempt to create a counterfactual narrative of the creation of Pakistan but one that has slowly and steadily taken root in the imagination of Pakistani people. As time has gone by, many Pakistanis have sought divine justification for Pakistan’s existence. Obviously, this has been achieved only by whitewashing history and sweeping under the carpet all inconvenient facts. For example, if Pakistan was created on 27th Ramzan, so was India.
Tragically, those who wish to seek such spiritual reaffirmation of the country’s existence are up against the facts. On page 51 of the book The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia, a compilation by Gyanesh Kudaisya and Tan Tai Yong, we find the following account of the grand Independence Day gala at the Karachi Club on the night of August 15, 1947 which needs to be quoted in full: “Jinnah arrived with his sister Fatima for the banquet….They were led to the other guests, who included cabinet members, the diplomatic corps, the commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Gracey, British civilians and army officers, Pakistani officers like Iskander Mirza, all resplendent in cummerbunds or dress suits with ladies in colourful saris and evening dresses.
Categories: Anti Islam act by Muslims, Asia, Pakistan
That Ihtram e Ramadhan is all wrong. They need to show some verse of the Quran to support that respect of Ramadhan, and there is none. It is a false and bad move by maulvis who want to pressurize that non-Muslim and non-fasting Muslims public should appear to be fasting.
The Muslims observing fast should have the courage to feed the needy during day time. If they stop other people from eating during the day, it means that they are going through extreme difficulty due to their fast. They cannot bear to see any one eating or drinking.
It is all a false respect for Ramadhan and bad activity.