President Asif Ali Zardari has sent the draft Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR) to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani with the advice that draft be debated in the Parliament. The step has been taken after the government last week showed a solid commitment to implement the Charter of Democracy (CoD) amid calls from within the PPP and from its allied parties that the president must sign the regulation for the sake of ensuring peace in Swat.
An official statement issued here on Sunday said that the President has referred the draft regulation to the Prime Minister with advice to place it before the parliament for debate. The governments step is largely believed to be an attempt for gaining some time as some international players do not approve the peace accord, which was signed by the NWFP government and the defunct Tehrik-e-Nifaz Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM), whose leader Maulana Sufi Muhammad played a role of mediator between the NWFP govt and the Swat Taliban.
The president delayed the signing of the Nizam-e-Adal Regulation, which is a must for the effective implementation of the two-month old peace accord. This delay has forced Maulana Sufi Muhammad to abandon the peace camp he and his followers had set up in Swat valley.
This development prompted the NWFP government to approach the emissaries of Sufi Muhammad, and the NWFP information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain held a meeting with Taliban and TNSM representatives in Malakand which somehow kept the peace agreement intact so far from meeting the fate of the two previous accords of 2007 and 2008.
Some analysts are of the view that President Asif Ali Zardari was under tremendous pressure from some international players, especially from the US over the peace move with the Taliban. By sending the matter to parliament, he could argue with international community that the decision has been taken by the elected sovereign body.
The development is also taking place at a time when the President is leaving for Japan to attend the conference of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) and Donors this week. This is considered to be a major shift in Pakistans policy amid some strong differences, which developed between Islamabad and Washington on the issue of tackling the militancy.
It will probably be the first time that parliament has been involved in real decision making on an issue that has been the exclusive domain of Gen (retd)Pervez Musharraf led army for seven years. Though there were several rounds of heated debates by the two houses of the parliament during this period, however, those debates failed to reach a decision. Official sources say that the government could place the matter in the National Assembly on Monday (today).
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