During the debate on the new Constitution, moderates...

During the debate on the new Constitution, moderates fear the growing influence of religious conservatives over the judicial system and regard Fazul Hadi Shinwari, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, with suspicion. He believes that Koranic punishment such as hand-chopping and stoning should be applied, although with more restraint than under the Taliban. A commission on judicial reform, established several months ago, was dissolved, reportedly obstructed by religious hard-liners. The infamous "Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice", the Taliban's ruthless religious enforcement agency, has never been abolished, although it has lost its ministerial status and is now known as the Department of Islamic Instruction. So discussions over the constitution and the role of sharia promise to be contentious. Although the nine-man drafting committee is mainly staffed with moderates, the conservatives will flex their muscles when the wider constitutional commission is convened. It could be a long time before Afghanistan returns to the relatively progressive style of 1964.