Pakistan officials bar candidates using rarely used religious rule

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Dozens of candidates, including the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, have been excluded from some constituencies in the coming Pakistani elections after being subjected by officials to a rigorous test of their religious credentials and "moral character" under a rarely invoked constitutional clause.
...
Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution demand that a candidate be a "good Muslim of integrity and honesty" who practises Islam and is knowledgeable about the religion.
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Another high-profile figure to have been disqualified is Ayaz Amir, a newspaper columnist who hoped to stand for re-election from the constituency of Chakwal in the eastern Punjab province. Amir was rejected on the basis of articles which were deemed to have encouraged consumption of alcohol, forbidden in Pakistan. He is to appeal.
...
The rigorous implementation of Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution is believed to have been ordered by Iftikhar Chaudhry, the chief justice. He has told returning officers to strictly implement the requirements for qualification.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/05/religious-rule-candidates-pakistan-elections

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What with this, and the Pakistani Taliban making believable threats against rallies for the secular parties, Pakistan seems to be shaping up to become a theocracy. Only Muslim parties and candidates need apply, and with the recent terrorist attacks on Shias, it's probably an even narrower religious test than 'Islamic', in practice.

[Igel]

1. Yeah, that sounds like Chaudhry.

He has a long history of exculpating gun-carrying Islamists and excoriating those who run afoul of his interpretation of legalistic minutiae.

He has a definite power-base, jurists, who adore how he uses the judiciary to push aside the Executive and Legislative. This includes liberal, at least by Pak standards, jurists. After all, judiciary power is *their* power, and power's what it's all about. They protested for his retention. They swoon when he instructs the guards to arrest somebody, investigators to investigate that person, and then bring that person before his court for judgment. Gotta love the Pakistani system of justice.

They don't much care that those he helps would readily punish those liberal jurists for running afoul of the strict interpretation of Islamic law. They assume that they'd continue to be the arbiter of what the law means. Short-term thinking, that.