Pakistan Enters into Deal with the Taliban
Islamic Law to be Officially Imposed in a Northern Province
Feb 16, 2009
This new deal is aimed at appeasing the Taliban and associated Islamic extremist groups within Pakistan. Observers have questioned the motives behind the new arrangement and are concerned that Pakistan may be losing control over its northern provinces. For now, the agreement only applies to the North West Frontier Province, which includes the Malakand region and particularly the Swat valley. Aside from the Taliban, Tahrik-e-Nafiz Shariat Muhammadi, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, has also been pushing for the implementation of Islamic law in the region.
Taliban forces and their associates have assumed control over the Swat valley in recent years and use it as an operational base for their actions against U.S. and N.A.T.O. forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban in Swat said on Sunday, February 15, 2009; that they would observe a 10-day cease-fire in support of a new peace process in the region. Today, a day later, they carefully welcomed the government´s concession on Islamic law. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told the Associated Press that: "Our whole struggle is for the enforcement of Sharia [Islamic] law…If this really brings us the implementation of Sharia, we will fully cooperate with it".
Legal and Procedural Changes
In an effort to clarify the legal implications of this agreement a Pakistani government spokesman told Al-Jazeera that: "All un-Islamic laws related to the judicial system, those against the Quran and Sunnah would be subject to cancellation and considered null and void". The agreement allows for Imams (Muslim clerics) to advise judges when hearing cases, but it does not ban female education nor adopt some of the other strict interpretations of Islamic law promoted by the Taliban. Therefore, some observers are not convinced that the Taliban or other extremist groups will be fully satisfied with this deal in the long run.
War on Terror
American and European officials are nervous about this deal and what it could mean for the successful pursuit of their interests in the region. Afghan, U.S., and N.A.T.O. officials have consistently criticized previous peace efforts between the government of Pakistan and Islamic extremists operating along its border regions. They consider that such deals legitimize these groups as political actors and only encourage them to continue fighting. Many observers and analysts also worry that this may be an early sign that Pakistan will be unable to continue with its contribution to "The War on Terror".
Shuja Nawaz, an analyst with the South Asia Center, commented to Al-Jazeera that: "It will mean that the government is ceding territory to the Taliban, which will be a repeat of what happened when prime minister Benazir Bhutto was in power in 1994 and a number of districts in Swat and Malakand were handed over to essentially the same group so they could impose their rather convoluted view of Sharia [Islamic law] on those districts…The moment you cede space to them, the Taliban will want to extend that control and then the government will have to go through this business of sending in the military yet again to clear and hold the territory".
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