Under the 15th amendment, the Prime Minister wanted to make the Quran and Sunnah the supreme law of Pakistan. This piece of legislation will have far-reaching effects on Pakistan's society, say observers. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Pakistanis that the proposed ``Shariat'' Bill was a ``charter of duties and not power.''

However, most Pakistanis fail to agree with this. ``It's not that we are not Muslims. But we are averse to a Taliban-like situation,'' says Benazir Bhutto, whose Pakistan Peoples Party is finalising a programme to launch a movement of protests against the bill. Bhutto, like a good politician, sees an opportunity in this. While Sharif and some right-wing parties are trying to push the legislation through, most parties, including regional and ethnic parties are opposed to it.

Also opposed are the religious minorities,women groups and social organisations. Law Minister Khalid Anwar told diplomats in Islamabad that the rationale behind the bill was to create a constitutional duty for the federal government to enforce Shariah (Islamic law), establish prayers, collect Zakat (religious tax) and provide social justice. ``We made a nuclear explosion in May. Now we will make another social explosion with this bill,'' says the Prime Minister.

However, public opinion shows that the explosion may, in fact, leave many with burnt fingers. Many question to bill which gives powers to the government to ``fight evil and promote good things,'' which has been borrowed from the Taliban militia. ``A government which is corrupt and which has a prime minister who is corrupt and a slave of the West cannot enforce Islam on us," says senator Fazal Muhammad, of the right-wing Jamiat-Ulema Islam, Fazlur Rahman Group. While many religious parties have endorsed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's proposed bill, there are an equal number who oppose it. ``Ithink that Nawaz Sharif has done it to save his own skin after the reaction over the US bombings. If he was serious, he would have rushed it through. It is like a lollipop that he has offered to the religious parties,'' says Maulana Sami Ul Haq, a former senator and religious figure from the conservative North West Frontier Province.

A joint action committee set up by women groups in Karachi also includes a representative of Sharif's own Pakistan Muslim League. ``The bill will give unquestionable powers to the Prime Minister and that is why we oppose it. It is not the will of the people but of a chosen few,'' says journalist Nafisa Shah, who addressed a press conference in Karachi to voice her opposition to the bill.

The support for the bill is spear-headed by President Rafiq Tarrar, seen as a religious fundamentalist. He told a religious conference comprising mostly burqa-clad women in Lahore this week that it was now their job to build public consensus on the issue.

The government's dream to pass thebill with a consensus has met a sad fate. Most parties have boycotted proceedings on the bill while others were so strong in their condemnation that there were embarrassing moments for some ministers and ruling party MPs. Despite the opposition, political observers say that the bill will be passed through by the Prime Minister. ``After that, it will be allowed to die a natural death,'' says one observer.But there are those that argue that the bill will herald the imposition of some laws which favour a more rigid and fundamentalist approach to Islam, previously seen in the Zia years. ``This will cause problems for all,'' says a Lahore based journalist.