The foremost is the government’s reluctance to admit that the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation of 2009 has been rendered redundant following the enactment of the 18th Amendment by the Parliament.
The regulation called for the establishment of a court, Darul Qazaa, and an appellate body in Swat. A set of Islamic laws were enforced by the governor of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa with the consent of President Asif Zardari during the Taliban insurgency in Malakand region.
The Awami National Party (ANP), seemingly coerced by large-scale bloodshed, was forced to reach an accord with militant leader Maulana Sufi Muhammad last year on implementing Islamic jurisprudence.
Unprecedented criticism at domestic and international levels had prevented the government from implementing the rigid set of Islamic laws.
Constitutional and legal experts rejected the regulation and said that it would create a parallel judicial system in the country.
The situation at the local level is precarious at best: lawyers said they had deferred their protest on the assurance of the PHC chef justice. They had been staging a strike for over a week, calling for the setting up of Darul Qazaa.
After a September 28 meeting with chief justice of the PHC, Justice Ejaz Afzal, a senior lawyer quoted president of the Swat Bar Association Fazal-e-Ghafoor as saying that he had been assured that the bench would be set up by November 1. Without elaborating why, Ghafoor insisted that the bench be called Darul Qazaa.
Mujahid Farooq told The Express Tribune that the 18th Amendment guaranteed the setting up of a bench at Mingora.
Last week, the chief minister told a gathering in Mingora that his government had requested the Supreme Court to appoint a bench in Swat to dispense quick justice to the people.
The former president of Chakdara Bar Association Ala Dad said that local Taliban would “not be satisfied with the setting up of a PHC bench in place of Darul Qazaa.
He voiced the fear that the Taliban may create security threats for members of the PHC bench in retaliation.
Two judges, Justice Mazhar Alam and Justice Aziz Kundi, who had been offered to become members of the Mingora bench, have already declined the offer. Lawyers said that security issues may have forced the two judges to turn down the offer.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2010.
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