LOC18:41
15:41 GMT
ISLAMABAD, April 20 (KUNA) -- Pakistani lawmakers Monday protested against
the comments of a local religious leader, who brokered a peace deal in
exchange for Islamic law in the northern valley, and barred the Islamic
regulation from being presented in the Senate for approval.
Maulana Sufi Muhammad, Chief of Taliban-style Tanzem-i-Nafaze Shariate
Muhammadi (TNSM), brokered a peace deal with the government to bring normalcy
and peace in the lush-green Sawat valley in exchange for Islamic justice
system enforcement in the area.
The bill titled Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR) was to be presented in the
Senate on Monday for approval after the President had signed it at the
recommendation of National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.
However, Maulana Sunfis comments after the NAR had been signed by the
President has infuriated the lawmakers, mainly opposition benches. Maulana
Sufi in his first address to a gathering of more than 5000 in Sawat on Sunday
declared that the countrys superior courts were un-Islamic and could not hear
appeals against decisions of the newly set up Qazi courts.
He said that there is no room for democracy in Islam and that Western
democracy was a "system of infidels".
Reacting to his statement, the lawmakers condemned his notion that courts
were un-Islamic and called the NAR as Talibans Shariah law.
One of the main opposers of NAR, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf
Hussain has feared that the enforcement of the NAR was just the beginning of
the Talibanisation of Pakistan.
Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani commenting on the statements of
Maulana Sufi and the reservations of lawmakers said that the government was
not certainly perturbed over such statements. As, he added, the people were
with the government. He defended the governments decision and said that peace
has been restored in the area. (end)
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