Provincial lawmakers discuss proposed peace deal to end conflict in Swat valley

(16 Feb 2009) SHOTLIST
1. Wide exterior of Chief Minister's house
2. Queue of vehicles arriving for meeting
3. Mid of members of pro-Taliban group sitting inside vehicle
4. Various of pro-Taliban group members walking towards meeting room
5. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Badshah Sardar, chief nazim for the Dir District:
"In the Malakand region Sharia law will be implemented and after this peace will be restored."
6. Mid of Sardar
7. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Badshah Sardar, chief nazim for the Dir District:
"The agreement has already been signed by both sides."
8. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Sikandar Khan, Taliban member
"There will be peace in Malakand and Bajur and we will also go to Waziristan and other areas".
9. Wide of meeting
10. Mid of Maulana Sami Ul Haq of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (on left), Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Chief Minister of the North West Frontier Province (in centre), Najim Uddin, member of the Provincial Assembly (on right)
11. Mid of Hoti
12. Wide of audience
13. Mid of Khan
14. Various of meeting
STORYLINE:
The government agreed to implement Islamic law across a large swathe of northwest Pakistan on Monday in a concession aimed at pacifying a spreading Taliban insurgency.
The decision was announced after talks with a pro-Taliban group from the Swat Valley, a one-time tourist haven in the northwest where extremists have gained sway through brutal tactics including beheadings and burning girls schools.
Officials gave few details on the what kind of Islamic or Shariah law they were planning to implement in Malakand region, which includes Swat, but said laws that do not comply with Islamic texts had been suspended effective from Monday.
Several past deals with militants in northwest Pakistan have failed, including one in Swat last year.
The U.S. has warned such pacts simply give insurgents time to regroup, but the country's civilian government insists force alone cannot defeat the extremists wreaking havoc in Pakistan and attacking U.S. troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Regaining the Swat Valley from militants is a major test for the Pakistani government. Unlike the semi-autonomous tribal regions where al-Qaida and Taliban have long thrived, the former tourist haven is supposed to be under full government control and lies less than 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Peshawar, the provincial capital of North-West Frontier Province.
A 30-member delegation from a banned pro-Taliban group in Swat took part in the discussions on Monday in Peshawar.
The group, the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, has a long history of agitating for the imposition of Islamic or Shariah law in the staunchly conservative region of the Muslim country. It is led by Sufi Muhammad, who Pakistan freed last year after he agreed to renounce violence.
Muhammad is father-in-law to Maulana Fazlullah, leader of the Taliban in Swat. Muhammad has pledged to visit Swat and persuade his son-in-law to stop the violence there.
Government officials have indicated they would focus on adjusting the area's judicial system to include provisions
such as letting religious scholars advise judges or having speedier courts.
Many civilians in the region support an Islamic justice system, and some of the regulations under discussion have been on the books but never implemented.
Muslim scholars themselves have different interpretations of what it means to be under Shariah.
Many extremists in northwest Pakistan apparently favour the exceptionally strict brand the Taliban imposed in
Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion in 2001, where female education and music was banned.

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