14 July 2005 -- Lawmakers in Pakistan's conservative Northwest Frontier province today passed a law aimed at ensuring proper Islamic behavior.
The Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, a six-party Islamic coalition that dominates the provincial assembly, introduced the bill.
It passed by a vote of 68 to 34, but the provincial governor still must sign it.
The law, called the Accountability Act, proposes, among other things, that a religious watchdog be appointed to ensure observance of Islamic values in public places and that a religious ombudsman supervise the media under the control of the provincial government to ensure that publications are "useful for the promotion of Islamic values."
Lawmakers opposed to the bill said it resembled the kind of laws Afghanistan's Taliban imposed.
(AP)
It passed by a vote of 68 to 34, but the provincial governor still must sign it.
The law, called the Accountability Act, proposes, among other things, that a religious watchdog be appointed to ensure observance of Islamic values in public places and that a religious ombudsman supervise the media under the control of the provincial government to ensure that publications are "useful for the promotion of Islamic values."
Lawmakers opposed to the bill said it resembled the kind of laws Afghanistan's Taliban imposed.
(AP)