ISLAMABAD, June 2 (IslamOnline.net) - The Provincial Assembly of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) approved unanimously Monday, June 2, to make Islamic Sharia the law of the land bordering Afghanistan.

The NWFP Assembly, led by Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, approved the Sharia bill 2003 to introduce Islamic Laws in the conservative province.

The Bill was tabled May 27 by the ruling alliance MMA. Opposition parties had proposed some amendments to the bill, but on Monday they withdrew their amendments, clearing the way for a unanimous approval.

The Bill asks for the establishment of three separate commissions on education, economic reforms and judicial system in order to bring some basic changes into existing judicial, education and economic disciplines in the province.

The recommendations of all the three commissions would be tabled before the NWFP Assembly for discussion. All the three commissions would comprise Ulema, jurists, educationists and bankers.

The judicial commission would suggest changes into the existing laws enacted in the tribal areas, falling under the NWFP limits. The government would create a vice and virtue department to end the social evils, destroying the fabric of society.

While the Sharia bill was still to be approved, the Islamic provincial government had already begun implementing Sharia in the province, a senior party leader told Islamonline.net on Monday.

The six-party alliance had promised the voters to introduce Sharia in the country if it was able to form government during its elections campaign in last October.

The MMA, living up to the expectations of the people of the northwest province, issued a notification on Monday, asking all Muslims to leave their shops, offices, school and work and go to pray at the time of Azan.

"The provincial government issued a notification on Monday making it compulsory for all government employees and general public to pray at the time of Azan,” Hafiz Hussein Ahmed a leader of the MMA told IOL.

He said the government has been authorized by this notification to take disciplinary action against those government employees failing to comply with the order.

The provincial government only last week tabled a long-awaited bill on enforcing Islamic Sharia law in the province.

In the face of these developments, representatives of multinational companies and western diplomats in Pakistan have expressed fears that the provincial government would try to adopt hard-line policies of the former Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan.

And this, they say, would quickly cast a pall on Pakistan's slowly improving investment climate.

These developments came at an awkward time for President Pervez Musharraf, who is already embroiled in a tussle with the Islamic alliance over changes he has made to the constitution in recent years to strengthen his grip on power.

Last week, Islamic hard-liners tore down billboards in the North Western Frontier Province's capital of Peshawar showing women in advertisements for western products, branding them immoral.

"We have started removing all our billboards from NWFP and it's their loss not ours," said a Pakistani executive of a foreign consumer group, referring to the Islamic alliance's stronghold.

The NWFP has historically been an important trade route to Central Asia through landlocked Afghanistan. But cross-border trade fell sharply in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan.

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry vice president M.A. Jabbar expressed optimism that the imposition of Islamic laws would not hurt investment in the country.