NEWS THAT the provincial government in Pakistan’s North West Frontier has agreed that Islamic sharia law can be applied if Taliban and other militant groups lay down their arms shows how far the security situation there has deteriorated.
This strategic region of Malakand, including the popular Swat valley, is far from the Afghan border but has been steadily drawn into that conflict over the last two years. Many of the same social and political forces are at work as in Afghanistan, including militant Islamic groups influenced by the Taliban who have been fighting the Pakistani army. They are in league with al-Qaeda, which has its headquarters there and have been drawn to support them as the United States increases its bombing attacks on Pakistani territory from drones.
The agreement is part of a broader effort to make peace with these groups after the military campaign against them failed. Local leaders will try to disarm the militant groups if the army withdraws. Sharia law, based on Islamic teaching, involves religious experts sitting in courts to make sure it is not violated. Such legal codes vary in interpretation and severity. The provincial government says sharia principles already apply and the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Pakistani constitution still stand. The existing legal system is cumbersome and very slow – a great source of popular dissatisfaction. New deadlines will apply in criminal and civil cases.
But critics point out that the concessions given here will be sought elsewhere, undermining unitary law. Already these groups have closed or burned girls’ schools, banned television, shut down barbers’ shops, conducted public floggings and beheaded opponents. Tens of thousands have fled from the region. President Asif Zardari admitted at the weekend that the extremists now controlling it are “trying to take over the state. We’re fighting for the survival of Pakistan.”
These developments are also deeply worrying for the Obama administration in Washington, which is rapidly realising the Afghan-Pakistan issue is its most immediate and pressing foreign policy challenge. By continuing US air attacks inside Pakistan the new administration ensures support for these militant groups will keep on growing and makes it more and more difficult to convince the government to fight them. But those who advocate negotiating with the Taliban can see in this latest development what may become necessary to reach an agreement with them, given that the fight against them is failing in Afghanistan as well.