Tuesday, 14 Apr, 2009 | 11:38 PM PST |
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs speaks with reporters, Thursday, April 9, 2009, during his daily press briefing in the White House Pressroom at the White House in Washington. -AP
WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday that an accord signed by President Zardari putting Pakistan's Malakand region under Islamic law in a bid to combat the Taliban went against human rights and democracy.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that 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 that the parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns around civil and human rights.’
President Asif Ali Zardari's move formalised a controversial deal between pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad who led thousands of supporters to fight against US troops in Afghanistan, and the government in the North West Frontier Province.
The deal applies to Malakand, a district of around three million people in the province that includes the Swat valley.
Separately, Senator John Kerry also expressed his reservations about the peace pact, hours after Sufi Mohammad indicated it will protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution.
‘I’ve expressed concerns and others have expressed concerns about this agreement,’ Kerry said, noting past peace deals with militants have tended to unravel. ‘I have, personally, serious reservations about whether or not it will hold.’
The central government lost control in Swat, a former ski resort and jewel in the crown of Pakistani tourism, after cleric Mullah Fazlullah launched a campaign to enforce Taliban-style sharia.
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