ISLAMABAD - Opposition is building in Pakistan to a peace deal aimed at ending Taliban violence in a northwestern region after the Islamists challenged democratic rule and started taking over new areas.
Pakistan is struggling to come up with a coherent strategy to stop the spread of militant violence and influence, raising fears that the country could slowly slide into Taliban hands.
After failing to quell the Taliban through force, President Asif Ali Zardari last week approved enforcement of Islamic sharia law in the Swat valley and adjoining areas despite criticism from Western governments and Pakistani liberals and rights groups.
Critics said the approval of sharia law in the valley 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad was akin to appeasing the militants.
Within days they forced their way into a new district closer to the capital, refused to lay down their arms and said their aim was to push their harsh version of Islam across the country.
"They are now threatening to get out of Swat and take other areas into their custody. So we've got to avoid that situation," former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said in an interview with USA Today published Wednesday.
Sharif is seen as the most popular politician in Pakistan after he forced Zardari to give in on a confrontation over the independence of the judiciary last month.
His party backed a resolution in parliament calling for the enforcement of sharia law in Swat to secure peace.
But a radical pro-Taliban Islamic cleric, Sufi Mohammad, who brokered the agreement in Swat, set off alarm bells across the country when he told his followers recently democracy, elections and the judicial system were all "un-Islamic."
Sharif said any deal with militants should include commitments that "democracy will not be allowed to deteriorate and the writ of the government will be honored."
Effective Pakistani action against militants in its northwest is vital to U.S. plans to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
OVERTHROWING THE STATE
Pakistani media has also become increasingly skeptical about Taliban aims and has urged the government to stand up to them.
"Sufi, Taliban must be fenced in" the News newspaper said in a headline on a front-page commentary Wednesday, referring to the radical cleric.
The Dawn newspaper called for action against the cleric and his Taliban followers instead of trying to appease them.
"Sufi Mohammad ... the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda are all committed to overthrowing the state," Dawn said in an editorial. "We must resist this onslaught."
The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government, led by the secular ethnic Pashtun Awami National Party (ANP), pushed for the introduction of sharia in Swat as the only way to bring peace.
Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the government reserved the right to use force.
"If someone challenges the writ of the government or endangers the life or property of others, then the government will have the second option open," he said. "The government in no way will allow anyone to run a parallel government."
Critics say the ANP caved in to the Taliban and betrayed the people of Swat who shunned Islamist parties and backed the ANP in a general election last year.
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