By Afshain Afzal

Ground is all set to stage actions leading Pakistan to soon loose her Islamic identity. In the latest development on 7 January 2022, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa of Lahore High Court issued shocking ruling in a judgment that contracting a second marriage without observing the period of Iddat is not illegal. It was pronounced that under Islamic law the marriage contracted by a divorced lady before the completion of the Iddat period would be an irregular marriage but not void and ex-wife and new husband in Nikah cannot be regarded as a cognizable offence under Enforcement of Hudood Ordinance, 1979. The Judgement by Justice Ali Zia Bajwa, rejecting the earlier decisions on the basis of orders given by Almighty Allah in the Holy Quran pronounced, “I do not agree with this contention because perusal of all these precedents transpires that all these decisions were rendered by the constitutional courts before December 1, 2006, when Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006 was not in existence.” Interestingly, a top Pakistani politician was involved in same sin but now due to recent judgement his marriage with a already married women without Iddat or even divorce has been legalized.

Credit goes to so called Pakistani Muslim leadership of foreign origin, who left behind even non-Muslims and Indian neighbours in the field of sins and immoralities. The Constitution, which binds State to ensure that Muslims enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres as set out in the Holy Quran has been put on the back burner. In 2009, Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to legally recognize a third sex, allowing transgenders to obtain identity cards and allow legal marriages with them. In 2012, Supreme Court ruled that transgender persons should have the same rights as other Pakistanis, including inheritance and job opportunities. The transgender community was counted in the national census for the 1st time in 2017. In September 2018, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar chaired a bench to hear a case regarding Transgenders’ Rights said, “It's our top most priority to give transgenders their rights,” and “Court wants to bring them into mainstream to resolve their issues”. Seminar on the Rights & Welfare of Transgender Persons was held in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and finally Pakistan passed “Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018”. Thus Pakistan acquired the role of world leadership in Muslim world for the cause of transgenders and their inter marriages.

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, Pakistan in general and National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) in particular launched countrywide free of cost registration campaign for transgender persons “Trans-Rights are Human Rights” across the country. NADRA has so far registered only 5,626 transgender persons. NADRA also engaged other ministries including Ministry of Human Rights, and provincial/district social welfare departments to mobilise transgender persons rights. In all the public transports including Metro busses throughout the country at least two seats in male compartment and two in female compartment have been marked as “X” for transgenders. The universities including the University of Karachi added the transgender column along with male and female columns in the admission form 2021–2022. Last month, the Sindh provincial cabinet, took a historic decision to reserve one percent or at least one seat of membership for transgenders and differently abled persons in each Local Council; Metropolitan Corporation and Municipal Corporations. Last year, Nisha Rao, whose family migrated to Pakistan from India, become the first Pakistani transgender lawyer and activist. This all is being done for less than 6,000 people in the country of 207.68 million population to impress foreign masters.

In another recent development, Justice Ms Ayesha A. Malik’s ‘out of turn’ elevation as Supreme Court’s judge has been approved. There were jubilation all over “Free Word” where many foreign nations, International Non Government Organizations, International Organizations and Pressure Groups took sigh of relief for causing final dent to Constitutional driven “Pakistan’s Islamic Code of Conduct”. There is no doubt on the abilities of Justice Ayesha and empowerment of women is welcoming but it is being analyzed that judiciary would be used to damage ideology of Pakistan and Islamic rule of law. Justice Ayesha in her Judgement of 2020 declared “two finger test and hymen examination in cases of rape or sexual abuse” unscientific having no medical basis, having no forensic value in cases of sexual violence and declared to be illegal and against the Article 9, 14 and 25 of the Constitution. Tweets from US Embassy, Canadian High Commissioner, German Ambassador, Netherland’s Ambassador welcoming Justice Ayesha nomination, talked about her “LL.M. from Harvard Law School”, “Diversity and Inclusion matter and make our system more inclusive”, “Way forward for female jurists in Pakistan” and “a Good start of 2022 for Pakistan that will help achieve Gender Equality women empowerment”. Sweets were distributed by illegally immigrated Indian and other foreign nationals living in Pakistan including those patronized by foreign agencies, trying to occupy top public and private positions in the Islamic Republic.

In fact, the Pressure Groups backed by foreign nations influenced Pakistani and the Indian judiciaries since long. Despite bowing to the knees, the Global Gender Gap Report 2017 by the World Economic Forum placed Pakistan as the second worst country on gender equality in its Global Gender Gap and the World Justice Project (WJP) placed Pakistan at 130^th out of 139 countries. One wonders if this is the state of Pakistani judiciary that they are free to violate the Constitution of the country and feel above the Quranic orders, they should be made abreast with the Quranic or Islamic Jurisprudence and the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. There is also need to revisit all the constitutional provisions and law made thereunder while Judges must be educated and trained to avoid a case of blasphemy filed against the judiciary. More so, it should also be mandatory for the Judges to take oath under the Article 65 of Constitution, in line with oath taken by the parliamentarians.