Pakistan Takes Steps Towards Sharia State In Seven Districts

Surprisingly, the new government of Pakistan has been quick to call itself "secular" and within four months of their taking power, seven districts of the North West Frontier Province are slated for Sharia Law. This progressive new government seems pretty quick to throw Pakistan back into the 7th century. Here's an excerpt from the piece here from MEMRI:

According to a report in the Peshawar-based Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain, shari'a law will be implemented in seven NWFP districts: Malakand, Swat, Shangla, Kohistan, Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Chitral.
Under the deal, the government will create a department of "Amr Bil Maroof," a reference to the Islamic principle exhorting others to be good. According to the report, police stations in these districts will assist the Amr Bil Maroof department, thereby ensuring the enforcement of shari'a in everyday life. Ulema will be recruited for honorary department positions, to advise government officials.
According to the Roznama Khabrain report, "the [ulema of the] department of Amr Bil Maroof will train [sic] people in Islam, Islamic teachings, Islamic norms and laws." There will be total ban on singing and dancing, and the ulema, who will not be paid a salary, will be based in the local police stations of the seven districts and offer their services as part of their work for Islam.

Who knows...maybe in a few weeks the only people left in these districts will be Taliban and some old decrepid Pakis who weren't healthy enough to make the move.

It was bad enough to see the new government of Pakistan start to make deals with the Taliban, now they are buying into the archaism of sharia law - give them another six months and they should be officially a cleric driven state - the only problem is there are some major cities in Pakistan that are going to take some real time to clean up. Alas, no more singing in Pakistan...what a shame, eh?

Pakistan Takes Steps Towards Shari'a State In Seven Districts

On May 11, 2008, the secular government in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) finalized a deal with the Taliban groups for the implementation of shari'a in the province's seven districts. The Pashtun nationalist government in the NWFP, which came to power last month, had vowed to talk to the Taliban in order to establish peace in the region. The talks were held between the government, Pakistani Taliban and the outlawed Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e -Muhammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Shari'a).
The Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, led by Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the Islamist leader recently released from prison under a deal with the government, is the dominant Taliban group in the NWFP. It is also a constituent of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is led by Baitullah Mehsud.
Recently, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan walked out of a similar dialogue process with the Pakistani government that was aimed at establishing peace in the Federally Administered Tribal Districts (FATAs), bordered by the NWFP and Afghanistan.
Under the deal between the NWFP government and the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, which is controlled by Sufi Muhammad's son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah, a shari'a system of administration and justice will be implemented in seven districts. This will effectively create the world's first mini-shari'a state within Pakistan, with the provincial government practically ceding control to the Taliban in roughly 45% of the province.