Word: haq
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...Most of Pakistan's ultraconservative groups have sought, unsuccessfully, to install an Islamic government and Shari'a through elections. The problem, says Sami ul-Haq, head of one of Pakistan's largest religious parties, is that most conservative leaders share the sentiments of the militants. "The extremists are saying that the government has not allowed us to implement Shari'a through peaceful means. They say, 'You have tried yourself and failed completely. So it is time to vacate the stage for us,'" says ul-Haq. "The problem is that we cannot condemn them because they have a valid argument...
Bakht Munih, 43, knows porn when he sees it. He scans a display of DVDs and jabs a finger at one that depicts a man and a woman, their faces perilously close. "That's a porno," the fruit vendor shouts. "It's a man kissing a woman." Aziz ul-Haq, the video-shop owner, is incredulous. "This is a family drama, a romance, nothing more," he says. The crowd of men crammed into this darkened shop nods in agreement with Haq. But Munir storms out with a warning: "These movies are destroying the character of our children...
...argument Haq and other video-shop owners like him can't win in this Pakistani frontier town. It often ends with unknown assailants bombing their stores in the night. Haq's shop is the latest to be bombed by what locals call the Taliban, religious vigilantes who don't necessarily come from Afghanistan but who take their cue from its erstwhile rulers. No one was hurt by the 4 a.m. bombing of his store, but the message was clear. So Haq is getting out of the video business, as owners of some 40 similar shops in the neighborhood have also...
Hussain explains that she had joined the PPP decades ago as a committed believer in the party's manifesto of Bread, Clothing and Shelter for all, but was driven away by internal politicking. She glosses over the time she spent serving the party of General Zia ul Haq, the military leader who overthrew Bhutto's father in 1977, then hanged him two years later. Her time serving under Bhutto's arch-nemesis Sharif is also barely mentioned, nor is her failed 2002 campaign in which she ran on President Pervez Musharraf's party ticket. All her party peregrinations were forgiven...
...interests not in Pakistan but in neighboring countries - to balance Soviet influence in India or to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the U.S. has rarely kept its eye on the ball. In the 1980s, Washington aided the regime of General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, using Pakistan as a fulcrum to help pry the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. The policy succeeded - but when victory was assured, the U.S. lost interest, while thousands of young Muslim extremists who had been armed to combat the communists turned their weapons against Pakistan and the U.S. With perverse timing, Washington...