Surrender at Swat

By signing a deal with a Taliban group of Malakand division and Swat to allow the setting up of Shariah based judicial system, the NWFP government has virtually agreed to provide a sanctuary to Taliban on Pakistan soil ostensibly to restore peace in the war torn region. Democratic governments are supposed to suppress religious militancy by force or by negotiation within the constitutional framework and not be surrendering their judicial system laid down in the constitution, which may have any number of deficiencies and drawbacks, but it is not un-Islamic by any means. After signing the deal the provincial government declared that all laws which were against Shariah would be considered redundant in the region.
"Following successful negotiations between Maulana Sufi Mohammad and a team of the provincial government, it has been decided that from now onwards all laws related to the judicial system in Malakand division, including Kohistan, in conflict with Shariah shall be considered redundant and defunct."
One may ask who has given the provincial government the right to declare certain existing laws redundant, because a religious leader Sufi Mohammad considers them to be so. Is he a "court of law" or a "parliament" to take such a drastic decision? Isn't there an Islamic Ideology Council and a Shariat Court to decide such matters? Are we living in a "jungle" where a band of rabid religious militants can shove any unconstitutional garbage down our throats! How can the government of Pakistan and its democratic parliament accept such a travesty of justice and violation of the laws of the land declaring that "it is not a sign of weakness? What else is it? Sufi Mohammad, who is the father in law of Maulana Fazlullah, cannot force the Pakistan government and the nation's armed forces to surrender to his demands to enforce what he calls "Shariah Law".
There is no doubt that the people of the deprived region of FATA and Kohistan need quick dispensation of justice, which no doubt is a failure of various Pakistan governments but that does not mean that a part of the country can devise its own judicial system in the name of Islam. In fact the agreement between NWFP government and Sufi Mohammad can and should be challenged in the Federal Shariat Court.