FROM THE FREE PRESS ARCHIVES

WRONG EMPHASIS

Basic democracy is so basic in Pakistan that it takes care of everything. The spiritual and material needs of the citizens of the Islamic Republic are of course taken care of by the Constitution framed by the mullahs and rejected by the President. But what with the furious chase for U-2's and American automobiles and great debates on whether traffic should run to the right or to the left, domestic matters continued to be rather grim. Now to ease the worries of the faithful, the Republic has thoughtfully entered the field of matrimony and, with a characteristic flourish of the pen, decreed that no upright citizen of the Republic can take a second wife without first getting the consent of the first. In old China, the wife sometimes entreated the husband to bring another spouse to the house and often the reluctant husband gave in. But times have changed and even in Pakistan it is doubtful if the purdah can long hide the influence of the promised atomic reactor. The man bold enough to live with two women under the same roof will therefore have to depend on his own devices: the Ordinance is not powerful enough to make the first wife give her consent. But anyway, is it really necessary to inflict a legal fine on the men who are willing to take two, or even four, wives? Their miseries should be more than adequate punishment even when the economies of the situation are in their favour. A man who willingly takes on two or four mothers -in-law is in need of psychological treatment, not legal. If the Islamic Republic has the interest of its citizens at heart, it should issue an Ordinance to make mothers-in-law illegal! March 6, 1961