ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Pak leader moots referendum on Shariat bill

With the passage of the Shariat bill in the senate becoming increasingly difficult, no less a person than the vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League Ejaz-ul-Haq has suggested that the government hold a referendum on the issue.

Alleging that those who used Islam for personal interests together with those who did not recognise Pakistan were the ones opposing the Shariat bill, Ejaz-ul Haq said the government would hold a referendum to seek the opinion of the people on the enforcement of the Shariat bill if the senate did not pass it. He claimed that the constitution would also be amended through a referendum.

For the past few weeks, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief has been visiting various places and addressing huge public meetings seeking the peoples' verbal support for the passage of the bill.

In this context one must view a recent statement of Sharief creating a distinction between the national assembly and the senate. The statement has created a controversy in the country and the chairman of the senate had to intervene and say that there was no difference between the two.

Sharief has been stressing that since the national assembly was a directly elected institution and senate a indirectly elected body, the senate must get the Shariat bill passed.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report