Re: Sharia and Swat
CM,
Stop being naive.
What is being observed in practice is different from what is written on paper. The issue that sane and non-jihadi Pakistanis are taking with this "Nizam-e-Kalashnikov" deal is:
This was forced on the locals through violence and brutalities. When the threat of the gun was absent, locals voted for a secular party and the mullahs accomplished using force what they could not do with persuasion.
Whatever is in the "written agreement" is meaningless because the party with the danda has repeatedly gone back on its words. Case in point - Until the day before parliament approval of Nizam-e-Adl, Swat Taliban said they will disarm once govt approves the deal. But the moment the deal was approved, they say "No disarming, go pound sand"
The written agreement that Qazi Court jurisprudence cannot be "contrary to Pakistan Federal law" is once again being publicly repudiated by Sufi Mohammad himself, who just said on Thursday that there shall be no appeal in any Pakistani court to a Qazi Court decision. In other words, if the court hands out an atrocious decision like the beating of Chand Bibi, the defendants have absolutely no judicial recourse.
Taliban is setting the agenda for the courts. The day after the resolution was passed, TTP "spokesthug" Muslim Khan gave interview to Dunya TV saying that first order of priority of Qazi courts is to pass death sentences to people he had on a "list of traitors". They included government officials, FC officers and others who had opposed the Taliban. This clearly shows that "Nizam-e-Adl" is just Taliban jungle law.
Your arguments are all theoretical and show no concern for how they are actually being implemented in reality and how the locals were terrorized into submission.
At the end of the day, this is a "deal" where one party has the freedom to violate its terms at will and the people have no recourse from arbitrary violence or capricious decisions.
Even if judges remain the same as in 1994, they too will have to operate under the same climate of fear or beheadings and bombings before they dare issue any judgment that might offend the gunmen.