Though the marauding Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) force that seized parts of the Buner District late last week have apparently returned to the Swat Valley, the local groups set up during their brief presence continue to enforce their unique brand of religious law across the area.
After dispatching paramilitary forces to the district last week, the Pakistani government had apparently redirected their focus against the Lower Dir district along the Afghan border. Yet officials say that attack is only a prelude to a much larger attack being planned in Buner in the coming days.
The offensive seems certain to imperil the Swat Valley peace deal, which passed through the National Assembly unanimously and was signed into law less than two weeks ago, has become decidedly unpopular through much of the country.
But even if the deal survives yet another military offensive along the Swat Valley’s periphery, President Asif Ali Zardari says the government intends to review the deal based on whether or not the local residents think it was successful in bringing peace.
Taliban to the rescue???????? Dr Manzur Ejaz thinks it*s possible…….Here..is..the..first..part…
It~is~a~real~eye~opener~~!!!
The foreign powers obsessed with extremism and jihadi violence in Pakistan have little insight into Pakistan’s real issues. They can throw a few billion dollars to prop up the state but money will only go so far: Pakistan will remain mired in lawlessness unless structural reforms are undertaken
Wali Dad, a peasant, died in front of the Karachi Press Club. He had been on a hunger strike, protesting the cruelty of a landlord Faqir Waryam, a member of Pir Pagara’s spiritual network.
Up north, the Taliban, besides enforcing shariat, forced the Swat landlords to flee, freeing landless peasants from long subjugation. Of course, the Taliban will receive revenue from the land but the peasants’ share will increase. Maybe the next Wali Dad will take his case to the nearby Taliban unit instead of dying in full view of helpless journalists at the Karachi Press Club.
Pakistani society has long reached the boiling point because of continuing oppressive feudalism at the political and economic levels and worsening equitable distribution of wealth in every other sector of the economy. To that has been added the new rich class of Pakistan, brazenly exhibitionist, which too has no regard for the poor.
The country has thus become a conglomerate of urban and rural fiefdoms where the powerful make their own laws and state institutions extract from the poor whatever they can. No one has yet put a stop to such degeneration; perhaps the Taliban will.
This may be a repetition of the Sikh insurgency of the eighteenth century in Punjab. With a small guerrilla force they destroyed the Mughal structures in Punjab in a short span of time. They made the local landlords and state-appointed vessels run, giving peasants the freedom to keep the produce after paying a small amount per household as ‘Rakhi’ (protection money). Waris Shah referred to this upheaval in a verse:
Here..is,,the,,URL..for..the..rest..of..the..article…:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=200…