Pakistan leader under pressure to back Swat deal

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By ZARAR KHAN – 32 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's prime minister joined opposition leaders Monday to pressure the president to sign a law that would impose Islamic rule in a northwestern valley in exchange for peace with the Taliban. Meanwhile, authorities announced the arrest of a fifth suspect in the deadly siege of the Indian city of Mumbai last year.

A Taliban spokesman said lawmakers would be considered to have abandoned Islam if they opposed the Islamic law deal. Many Western and Pakistani critics say the agreement represents a dangerous surrender to extremists behind a campaign of terror in the Swat Valley and more broadly across the border region with Afghanistan.

The provincial government in northwestern Pakistan agreed in February to impose Islamic law in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas in exchange for a cease-fire with the local Taliban. But amid criticism from human rights activists and Western allies, President Asif Ali Zardari has delayed signing the agreement, something that would likely bring fresh international criticism on his shaky one-year stint at the helm of the nuclear-armed country.

His stance has long been that he won't sign until peace is achieved in the area — but he hasn't defined what that means. The delay led a hardline cleric mediating the agreement to leave Swat in anger last week while also upsetting lawmakers from the region.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD97HM15G1

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This is confusing. They're already imposing Islamic rule in the Swat Valley.


The Taliban are now in control of the Swat Valley area of Pakistan. Stuart Ramsay is the only foreign TV journalist to have entered the region since the takeover. There are scenes of a public flogging in his report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N704fjRECKw

[sledgehammer]

1. To clear the confusion...

There's a deal in place between the Taliban and the Pak govt. However, it has not been formally approved yet by parliament. Historically, Pakistan govt has had limited control in the Swat region anyways. But it's been mostly tribal laws (which are still backward though), rather than sharia-style religious laws.

The new laws (Nizam-e-Adl) that will be put in place if the President signs the bill are based on sharia. However, there are a series of Constitutional/Legislative rights that take precedence over any sharia-style law imposed by the mullahs. Of course, this won't prevent them from carrying out their own sick justice. But it does leave the threat of punishment if they go against those laws.

Here's the text of Nizam-e-Adl (see Schedule-1 for info on the laws that will apply):

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70456&Itemid=2

Signing of Nizam-e-Adl is a terrible move. But I don't think there's much of a choice in the short run. The only way out is if the govt monitors the hell out of the Mullahs, and publicize any sick stuff like not allowing women to leave homes on their own, or flogging, etc. Any punishments will be welcome. And it will provide legitimacy for further military action to get rid of Taliban.

[Turborama]

2. Thanks a lot for the clarification. He's signed the regulation, by the way...

Pakistan president agrees to Islamic law in valley
By ZARAR KHAN – 12 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Under pressure from lawmakers including members of his own party, Pakistan's president on Monday signed a regulation that puts a northwest valley under Islamic law to achieve peace with Taliban militants who have brutalized the area.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD97HOODG2

[sledgehammer]

3. Yeah, just read that.

Terrible, just terrible!

But can this be used against the Taliban in any way? By uniting conservative and moderate forces against extremism, in order to prevent sharia from spreading further?

[Turborama]

4. I've got a horrible feeling it's going to spread like a cancer, now they've got this 'victory'

The latest news from Buner doesn't bode well...

How likely is the scenario you portray? I hope it's a possibility but the fear that the Taliban instil could lead to an exodus, a kind of brain drain. They're a nightmare to have to deal with, after all.

[sledgehammer]

5. That will be the test

If there's any other "deal" like this, it's all over. It's as good as saying the entire country has been taken over.

But if they can contain Taliban to this area, it may work in the long run for the rest of the country. If there are excesses, and they are publicized, then it could have a unifying effect. And, eventually, Swat might be liberated too.

It's also a citizen's responsibility. I've discussed this in other threads before. But to briefly repeat, it's up to the average citizen to shun extremist views. For too long, citizens have let the corner mosque mullah get away with their rants, and not challenged them.

I have this feeling that things are beginning to change. When citizens of Pakistan see average policemen/soldiers being murdered, they start wondering why. When they see a woman get brutally flogged in public, they start realizing the difference between conservatism and extremism. When they see centuries-old traditions like singing and dancing at "urs" (celebration to honor "saints") being banned, they realize that these nutjobs have no interest in Pakistan, but a tyrannical, puritanical regime.

Can the govt and citizens contain extremism? Only time will tell.

[Turborama]

6. Have you seen this yet?

I wonder if scenes like this will be on Pakistan TV, seeing as they've been clamping down on Pakistani reporters - you may have heard about the TV reporter was murdered by the Taliban in the Swat Valley recently?

What's it going to take for this paradigm shift to happen? After all, people have to see it, not just hear about it, to be woken up to this barbarism...

-- ---- --

The Taliban are now in control of the Swat Valley area of Pakistan. Stuart Ramsay is the only foreign TV journalist to have entered the region since the takeover. There are scenes of a public flogging in his report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N704fjRECKw

[sledgehammer]

7. Yes, I've seen that video

It is images like these that are making a difference. It can't happen overnight. Just like extremism didn't develop overnight, anti-extremism won't develop overnight. It will take time and effort, but I think it will happen.

Govt and social institutions needs to make clear the difference between extremism and conservatism, that's their best tool in this fight. They will find lots of takers.

[ohio2007]

10. March of the Taliban ( 60 miles from Islamabad )

March of the Taliban

ON Saturday, March 11, a convoy of 10 double-cabin four-wheel drive pick-up trucks loaded with Taliban armed with every description of portable weapons — Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns — drove from Daggar the headquarters of Buner district to the villages of Sohawa and Dagai in Buner. It entered Swabi district at Jhanda village, drove through the district headquarter (the town of Swabi), drove on to the motorway, exited at Mardan, drove through the cantonment of Mardan and, showing their weapons for all to see, went on towards Malakand.

In doing the above, the Taliban broke many laws of the state of Pakistan not least those that prohibit the possession of heavy weapons; showing weapons publicly and so on. They drove through a district HQ of a district they have not yet occupied (but are well on the way sooner rather than later, given the non-governance being exhibited by the ANP non-government of the Frontier); on the federally policed motorway; through an army cantonment — as a matter of fact right past the Punjab Regimental Centre’s shopping plaza containing the usual bakery and pastry-shop run by serving soldiers — and thence through the rest of the crowded city of Mardan which is also the home of the chief minister of the province.

snip
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/kamran-shafi-march-of-the-taliban

Pakistani Taliban begin imposing rule in new area

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani Taliban are imposing their rule in a Pakistani mountain valley they took over last week, spreading fear in the area only 100 km (60 miles) from the capital, police and residents said on Monday.

snip

Clashes erupted in Buner district last week after scores of Taliban moved in unopposed from the neighboring Swat valley, where authorities struck a deal with Islamists in February to enforce Islamic law in a bid to end violence.

Buner residents formed a militia, or "lashkar," to resist the militants and 13 people, including eight Taliban, three policemen and two villagers, were killed in clashes.

Authorities say they are negotiating with the militants to persuade them to withdraw but the Taliban have stayed put and appeared determined to take over the valley, police said.

"They are everywhere," Arsala Khan, a deputy superintendent of police, told Reuters by telephone from Buner

snip

PANIC

Residents of Buner said they feared more bloodshed.

"There's panic all over," said ethnic Pashtun tribal elder Fateh Khan. "If the Taliban don't leave there will be more fighting, there might be a military operation. If that happens, who will lose? Only us."

The spread of the Taliban has alarmed many Pakistanis.

snip

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090413/wl_nm/us_pakistan_taliban_1

Islamabad to be liberated soon


I'm sure you can beat them back on your own
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ygjS0TEls&feature=related
yeah
good luck with that

[EFerrari]

8. Obama better forget about Afghanistan because the action has moved across the mountains.

What a mess.

[ohio2007]

9. Parliament ceded Swat to the Taliban. Taliban not satisfied

The birth of a rogue nation that will be expecting Japanese aid shortly to rebuild the education system.

National Assembly passes Nizam-e-Adl resolution


ISLAMBAD: Pakistan's parliament on Monday passed a resolution urging the president to endorse a controversial deal for Islamic law in Swat that has sparked alarm about emboldening Taliban hardliners. Parliamentary affairs minister Babar Awan submitted a resolution to the lower house seeking approval for President Asif Ali Zardari to ratify Sharia Nizam Adl Regulation 2009, in accordance with legislative practice.

Monday's vote comes just days after pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, who signed the February agreement with the local government, lashed out at Zardari for not ratifying the deal and withdrew from Swat in protest.


Sharia courts have already started working in Swat, a former ski resort ripped apart by a nearly two-year brutal insurgency, but where the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government says

the deal can bring peace.


‘We want consensus of the whole nation. We want to take the house into confidence. We don't want to bypass the parliament,’ Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told lawmakers.


‘We appreciate the sacrifices made by the people of North West Frontier Province in the war on terror.‘We are committed to implement the system and

the whole nation should support it,’......

snip


http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/national+assembly+passes+nizam-e-adl

Didn't the League of Nations sell out a nation to appease Adolph...for a little while ?
yes
That's what they called "peace in our time"

People of Swat have been sold out to buy a little time