Pressure did not work in Swat

Thursday, April 16, 2009
By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: There has been tremendous pressure from Washington on President Asif Ali Zardari and ANP President Asfandyar Wali not to enforce the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Swat but the two did not oblige the former for the mere reason that there was no other option available with anyone to bring peace in the valley. The White House was on Tuesday reported as saying that the accord signed by President Zardari placing Swat under Islamic law was against human rights and democracy. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration believed that “solutions involving security in Pakistan don’t include less democracy and less human-rights.
“The signing of that denoting strict Islamic law in the Swat valley goes against both of those principles. We are disappointed the parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns about civil and human rights.”
Sources in the Presidency confided to The News that Richard Holbrooke, US president’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, during his last visit plainly suggested the president not to sign the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. However, President Zardari did not say either “yes” or “no” to his influential visitor but later the strategy was evolved to seek the will of the people by tossing the Regulation before the National Assembly. These sources said that it was Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan, who came up with the idea of democratically tackling the issue. President Zardari, it is said, was under tremendous pressure to derail the Swat peace process in view of Washington’s apprehensions but he did not do that because of foreseeable serious political fallouts as well as possible return of Swat to complete lawlessness and anarchy.
President Zardari knew that in case he dithered from his commitment that he had made with Asfandyar Wali and his party on Swat peace deal, the ANP would not only leave the federal government but would also resign from the Frontier government, thus pushing the country back to afresh political instability.
Having experienced his last one-year relations full of ups and downs with the PML-N, the president was not ready to repeat the recent history that had badly damaged his reputation in public. He also sounded the Americans that the ANP is a secular party but it had to get into a peace deal with Sufi Muhammad to maintain the writ of the government in Swat and bring peace there. Everyone here knows that there was no other option to secure the lives and property of the people of Swat.
In a Presidency meeting that discussed the issue recently, Babar Awan came up with the idea that the best strategy would be to put the proposal before the National Assembly and get it endorsed there, which would enable the government to counter the foreign pressure by suggesting that imposition of the Nizam-e-Adl was the will of parliament. Farooq Naek, the Chairman Senate, reportedly opposed Awan but Naek was politely told to let the government settle the issue politically. So as a consequence Awan’s advice was heard and implemented.

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