Pakistan: Supreme Court Rejects Taliban-style Laws in NWFP

Taleban law blocked in Pakistan

(BBC News)

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has blocked a fresh attempt to enact a Taleban-style law to enforce Islamic morality in North West Frontier Province (NWFP)…

…The bill adopted by the NWFP assembly last month was a watered-down version of the legislation rejected by the Supreme Court last year, again after a petition from the president.

The key difference between the bills is that the proposed department to be set up to enforce morality will not have its own police force.

But it would, however, be able to requisition police “to promote virtue and prevent vice”.

It has been a bad year for the conservative Islamic parties of Pakistan. First the so-called Hudood rape laws have been overturned. And now the NWFP assembly has twice had their Taliban-style police force bill (The Hisba, or Accountability Bill) rejected.