Last late week, Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., wagged his finger at critics of the peace negotiations with the Taliban in Swat. He assured us that President Zardari wouldn’t sign the bill that would impose sharia, or Islamic Law, in a large region of northwestern Pakistan until the Taliban ended violent attacks and the security situation improved:
How quickly all of that changes. Five days later, President Zardari signed the bill that imposed sharia in the Swat Valley after the Pakistani parliament voted in favor of the regulation. And, no, peace suddenly didn’t break out in Swat in just five days. The Pakistani newspaper Dawn said Zardari likely put the issue before parliament to spread the blame:
The Taliban threatened violence and said any member of parliament that voted against the law would be branded a non-Muslim. Only one political party, the Sindh-based anti-Taliban Muttahida Qaumi Movement opposed the sharia law. The U.S. Congress is preparing to triple the aid to Pakistan, from $500 million to $1.5 billion a year. The $500 million a year has bought the Taliban takeover of the tribal areas and much of the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan, two of Pakistan’s four provinces; the reestablishment of al Qaeda’s safe haven inside Pakistan; the basing of the Afghan Taliban executive council in Quetta; a multitude of plots and attacks against the West, Afghanistan, and India; and duplicitous dealings by the military and intelligence services. It will be interesting to see what $1.5 billion a year will bring.
