Then shops selling music and videos CDs were trashed. Next came a ban that prevented male doctors from attending to female patients. Now has arrived the news that boutiques and jewellery shops in the province have been forced to remove mannequins from their display windows.
There is an unmistakable obsession with the female form whether in a picture on a billboard, as a patient in a hospital, or simply cast as a display dummy in a shop window.
There are certainly more important things for a government to do than to make issues out of non-issues.
For some strange reason, all of this seemingly has been happening 'unofficially'. While the police have been going around telling shop owners to remove mannequins from display, when confronted by journalists they have been saying they did not tell anyone to do that.
It may be recalled that when questioned about the attacks on music shops, the province's Chief Minister, Akram Khan Durrani, had said that his government had ordered banning of music only from public transport since it distracted the drivers' attention and could result in mishaps. That was logical enough a justification.
It is another story, though, that taking cue from that decision, hooligans caused a lot of damage to the property and businesses of many.
The MMA government seems to be maintaining a rather confused stance on the subject because it does not want the ordinary people to see it to be imitating the Taleban's style of oppressive governance while at the same time seeking to appease obscurantist elements within its own ranks. In fact, even if it wants it cannot act like the Taleban for, unlike them, it came to power through the democratic means of elections.
Traditionally, religious parties in this country have never received significant electoral support.
The MMA won as many seats in the NWFP as it did this time mainly because of the extraordinary conditions that prevailed at the election time in the aftermath of the US attack on Afghanistan.
If the people in that province find the atmosphere too confining under the religious alliance's rule, they might not want to vote for it at the next election.
It is this awareness of the reality that, apparently, is at the back of the Durrani government's dual policy of maintaining a moderate public posture while pursuing retrogressive policies on social issues.
It is about time the MMA government in the province came up with a clear policy on all these issues.
If it deems it necessary to stop boutiques from using mannequins to advertise their products, it must come up with a notification to that effect so that they know what is expected of them, and the police do not harass them without legal authority.
More importantly, it would be well advised to concentrate on substantive issues rather than superficial ones.
It must pay attention to the more pressing problems of poverty, law and order, education and so many other things that need to be taken care of.
It would be doing both the religion and its followers a great service if it provided good governance to ordinary men and women.