Then called the Indian Penal Code it was renamed when Pakistan was created in 1947. Or consider the Code of Criminal Procedure - the regulation which regulates the functioning of all criminal courts in Pakistan. It was enacted in 1898.
Other laws include: The Code of Civil Procedure - 1908. The Income Tax Act - 1922. The Frontier Crimes Regulation - 1901 - of which more about later. Companies Act - 1923. Contract Act - 1872. Charitable Endowment Act - 1890. Electricity Act - 1910. Destructive Insects and Pests Act - 1914. Dramatic Performances Act - 1876. The list goes on, and on.
The Raj ended in 1947 when the Subcontinent was partitioned creating the new nations of India and Pakistan. It made sense at the time for Pakistan, as it found its feet, to retain the legal and administrative structure left by the Raj. Today, 67 years later, the same laws remain on the books. Yes, some minor modifications have been made. These are largely superficial to do with definitions, terminology and temporal adjustments. But, in essence, the entire legal system of Pakistan remains as the British left it.
One could argue that this is a good thing. The British were good administrators. They were, as the saying goes, people who could make the trains run on time. The laws they left behind are detailed, well written and comprehensive. And they worked well. But there is a problem.
The British were invaders and occupiers. Their intention was to control and subdue the locals so they could further their business interests with a minimum of fuss. This was the primary objective of the legal and administrative structure they put in place in the Subcontinent. The Penal Code, for example, allowed the police to arrest anyone more or less at will. No warrant was necessary. No proof of wrongdoing needed. The Income Tax Act authorized a civil servant to summon any taxpayer at any time. And if the taxpayer failed to show at the designated time his bank accounts could be frozen and assets appropriated. Similar blanket almost unchecked authority to arrest, punish, confiscate or restrict basic freedoms without recourse is granted by the legal system to the government.
Interestingly UK legislation has none of these transgressions. Its driving principle is the protection of individual rights. That the British legislated in one way at home and another in the colonies is not surprising. What is surprising is that we in Pakistan continue to run our lives by an alien code.
Especially outrageous is the Frontier Crimes Regulation known widely by its acronym - FCR. The FCR applies to the areas that are now called FATA - Federally Administered Tribal Areas - homelands to the fiercely independent Pashtun. The British discovered early - 1848 to be precise - that they would not be fully able to control the Pashtun. So the FCR was born - a set of laws that allowed the Pashtun limited independence to live according to their Islamic and tribal traditions. But at the same time it gave the British the right to intervene brutally and vindictively as needed in FATA.
Formalized in 1901 FCR authorizes collective punishment; the family or the entire tribe of a suspect can be imprisoned until such time as he gives himself up. People walking on the street can be arrested for intending to commit a crime.There is no right to a trial, or to legal representation or to appeal. A government appointed ‘political agent’ is judge jury and executioner.
In 2011 - a full 110 years after it was enacted - it dawned on Islamabad that the FCR needed to be updated. Some terminology was changed, fines were adjusted for inflation, and women, children and the elderly were excluded from collective punishment. Other than that it remains as it was.
While FCR is especially odious, the quality of one sidedness it reflects, of imbalance between the power of the state and that of the citizen, permeates the entire legal structure of the Raj. That this structure should continue to remain our law in Pakistan today when we have been free for 67 years is unconscionable.
Nadeem M Qureshi is Chairman of Mustaqbil Pakistan
No comments:
Post a Comment