Pakistan agrees to Islamic law in Swat Valley, angering critics
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The Pakistani government, desperate to restore peace to a Taliban-infested valley once known as the "Switzerland of Pakistan," agreed yesterday to enforce strict Islamic law in the surrounding district near the Afghan border, conceding to a longstanding demand by local Islamist leaders who in turn pledged to ask the fighters to lay down their arms.
In announcing the agreement, Pakistani officials asserted that the adoption of sharia law would bring swift and fair justice to the Swat Valley, where people have long complained of legal corruption and delays. They said the new system would have "nothing in common" with the draconian rule of the Taliban militia that ran Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, during which thieves' hands were amputated and adulterers were stoned to death.
"There was a vacuum . . . in the legal system. The people demanded this and they deserve it," said Amir Haider Khan Hoti, chief minister of the Northwest Frontier Province. The new system will include an appeals process, something the Afghan Taliban justice system did not allow for.
Militant leaders in the scenic Swat Valley, in a gesture of good faith, said they would observe a 10-day cease-fire while the new system is implemented.
Pakistani critics blasted the deal as a dangerous concession to extremist militants who have terrified inhabitants of the valley for months, sending thousands into flight to safer areas. They have bombed girls' schools, beheaded policemen, whipped criminals in public squares, and assassinated activists from the secular Awami National Party that governs the Northwest Frontier Province.
The critics expressed fear that this victory might spur the militants to push harder for the imposition of Islamic law in other areas, taking advantage of a promise by the Pakistani army to pull back from the surrounding area if peace is restored.
The new special US envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, underscored American concerns yesterday when he said the militant takeover of Swat, once a popular tourist destination, had shown that "India, the U.S. and Pakistan all have a common threat now." Speaking in New Delhi, Holbrooke said he had talked to people from Swat during his recent visit to Pakistan and found them "frankly quite terrified."
As Pakistani officials were defending their decision to negotiate with the militants, a US missile attack by an unmanned aircraft on a suspected militant camp killed more than 30 people in the nearby tribal area of Kurram. The second such attack in three days, it came amid increasing protests by opposition groups that the government is sacrificing Pakstani lives and sovereignty to US strategic interests.
President Asif Ali Zardari said Friday that there was "no alternative" but to use force against the militants, and his government is widely believed to accept the controversial drone attacks.
Yet Zardari, after some initial hesitation and wording changes, also approved the new sharia law plan for Malakand Agency, a large district in the Northwest Frontier Province that includes Swat.
Pakistan's federal information minister, Sherry Rehman, rejected suggestions that the Malakand accord was a concession to the militants, saying it is "in no way a sign of the state's weakness." In a statement issued last night from Islamabad, she said Zardari will implement sharia law "after the restoration of peace in the region."
Leaders of the Awami National Party here said they also supported the agreement even though their own views are more secular and they have been targeted by militant attacks. They said the government does not have sufficient force to defeat the Taliban and foreign fighters based in the autonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border. So, they said, it needs to negotiate with local militant groups in nearby areas like Swat to isolate the renegade hard-liners in the tribal sanctuaries. 