PESHAWAR: Senior Cabinet minister Bashir Bilour said Shariah courts would soon be extended to six more districts of Malakand, the wider region around Swat.
“President Asif Ali Zardari has assured us he will sign the regulation. Qazi appointments have been made and six more districts of Swat will have Shariah courts,” Bilour said. Swat, a former princely state, was only absorbed into Pakistan in 1969.
Shariah courts have started work in Swat valley under a controversial deal that the government hopes will end two years of bitter fighting.
Last month’s agreement to implement Shariah in the former ski resort triggered alarm around the world fearful it would embolden militants throughout the northwest.
“Seven qazis (judges) have started working in Shariah courts in Swat,” said regional commissioner Syed Mohammad Javed.
“Nothing against Shariah will be allowed,” he said. Courts began hearing cases under Islamic law on Tuesday.
The judges, all qualified in Islamic law, were approved by pro-Taleban cleric Soofi Mohammad, who signed the deal with the government on Feb. 16 and who is the father-in-law of firebrand militant leader Maulana Fazlullah.
Ameer Izzat Khan, a spokesman for Mohammad, said: “It is the result of a two-year struggle. We are thankful to Allah. An appeal court will also start functioning soon, the government has assured us.
Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the courts had been set up under a 1990s regulation and that amendments were awaiting official approval by Zardari. The minister said that once peace and order was restored fully to Swat, government troops would be pulled out, although residents say most of the valley has effectively fallen into the hands of the Taleban.
“When government writ is established, the military would be phased out gradually,” Hussain said. Despite the fragile cease-fire, acts of violence have continued.
Two soldiers were killed on March 3 after Taleban militants accused them of violating the agreement, and suspected militants kidnapped two local officials.
Hussain said nearly 200 schools destroyed or damaged during the fighting had been given tents so classes could resume.
But the agreement has sparked anger among lawyers elsewhere in the country who have just secured a government promise to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, two years after he was dismissed under emergency rule.
“The establishment of Shariah courts in Swat is a dangerous precedent, which has put our judicial system at serious risk,” said Rashid Razvi, a top lawyer.
“The qazis (judges) who run these courts are simply clerics who have no knowledge of laws and training on how to run a court,” he added.
Analysts say higher courts have lost their writ in Swat.
“The Swat courts have scrapped the writ of the superior courts in that region,” said Tauseef Ahmed Khan, a professor at Urdu University Karachi.
“Iftikhar Chaudhry should make this issue a priority and abolish Shariah courts,” he said.
