The Swat valley’s steady descent into chaos, from a bustling leisure tourism destination up until the ’90s to a cultural wasteland now controlled by a bunch of medieval-minded Taliban, tells a sorry tale of state complacence, as it continues to fail. Monday’s agreement signed between the government and the local Taliban in Swat will change little for the wronged people of the valley; it only puts a stamp of approval over the sealing of their fate. The mullahs have won this battle as the government buckles under pressure.

Eleven months into office, this government presided over by Asif Ali Zardari has built a dubious record of saying one thing and doing the other. Examples abound, in domestic and foreign affairs. But let’s stick to the latest bungling: two days before the government agreed to a ceasefire deal with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in Swat, Zardari had assured the nation that fighting off the Taliban was the only way forward.

The deal struck in the valley is dangerous in its implications. It has virtually made the entire area over to the Taliban, where their hitherto illegal writ in the garb of Islamic Sharia laws is now being accepted as a fait accompli. Under the deal, those forced to seek justice from Sharia courts will now have no right of appeal in a higher civil court. How could you have two parallel justice systems running in the same country? And knowing justice, Taliban style, leaves one with cold feet. The intolerant and brutal tribal warlords know no mercy, and have no regard for human life and dignity. Summary executions of men and women who do not subscribe to their brand of Islam are the only justice they practise.

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