Tread with caution on hudud

FOR Pakistani observers, recent efforts in Malaysia to introduce hudud laws, supposedly derived from religious injunctions, bear something of a resemblance to what their own country experienced 37 years ago, when military ruler Gen Zia Ul Haq launched his controversial “Islamisation” programme to shore up support for his coup d’état.

Of course there are significant differences in both countries’ situations; in Malaysia the law has been introduced by PAS, an Islamist party, due to its own political calculations.