By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan is to set up Islamic courts in its insurgency-hit areas in the northwestern country to deliver verdicts under Islamic laws in four to six months, the provincial chief executive said.
The Islamic courts will be established in Malakand Division in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) including the restive Swat valley where Pakistani Taliban have been fighting security forces since over the past two years.
“All un-Islamic laws are declared null and void from today,” according to the agreement signed by the NWFP government and Sofi Muhammad, chief of banned Tehrik Shariat-e-Nifaza Muhammadi (TSNM).
The agreement, read out by Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain at a press conference, said the Islamic Shariat courts will be set up in all districts of Malakand division after peace is restored in the violence-hit areas.
Chief Minister NWFP Amir Haider Khan Hoti, who signed the agreement on behalf of the government, later told a news conference that Islamic courts will deliver verdicts in criminal cases in four months and in civil cases in six months.
There is no reaction from the Swat Taliban to the agreement.
“Those who have adopted the path of violence, I will appeal to them to play role for peace and lay down arms,” Hoti said.
The Chief Minister said that all law enforcement agencies in Swat valley will not proactive in the area after the instruction of the new system and the forces will only be in a reactive position if they are attacked.
Islamic clerics will head the courts under the “Nizam-e-Adal’ (Justice System) Regulations-2009”.
Appellate benches will also be set up in Malakand division so the people could not go out of the area for appeal against the lower courts’ verdicts.
Hoti said that the Islamic justice system is not contrary to the country’s constitution and the fundamental rights as well as personal liberties.
He said President Asif Ali Zardari has agreed with the introduction of the justice system