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Desperate moves on to secure Swat Ã¢ï¿½ï&iqu

By Ismail Khan
DAWN, January 15, 2009 SWAT, known for its green meadows, gushing river and snow-capped mountains, has unfortunately come to relive its historic name, Suvastu — the white serpent — whose tenacity and viciousness has stung the political and military leadership so badly that both are now looking for new ways to put a lid on the monster of growing bloodshed and reclaim its fast-shrinking territory. The idyllic valley has gone really bad, its image distorted beyond recognition. Pakistan’s most popular tourist destination is now haunted by death and fear; few officials now dare to go and serve there.

A Women Who Walked and walked - Swat Story

We write here some of the stories the women of Swat told us. They come from Kabbal, Mingawera (Mingora), Qambar, Kanju and other parts of Swat. Some are from Buner and Maidan in Lower Dir. Their lives were affected in many more ways than the lives of their men.
When we entered the large tent a few women looked up and smiled. Some got up and put out their hands to greet us. They seemed surprised that we could converse in the same language. "Sit down. We can't even offer you tea" said one laughing, "look at us and what we have been reduced to." Their children were lying on the floor, red because of the heat, tired and listless in the hot air of the fans. The women had been sitting in silence before we went in.

Quagmire in Swat Valley

BY: MANZOOR

The Pakistani army has claimed to have made great strides in defeating the militant menace in the Swat Valley. However, high-ranking sources tell us these claims are overblown, and what we are seeing is a replay of the cat-and-mouse game the Taliban have been playing with the government for years.

The crisis in Pakistan has been a long time in the making. For the last five years, Swat has been a popular refuge of all sorts of fundamentalist groups, including Saudi-led al Qaeda

fundamentalists, the Jaish- e-Muhammad from south Punjab, the Kashmiri fighters Harket-e-Jihad- e-Islami, and a collection of Uzbeks, Afghan Taliban and assorted individual terrorist adventurers.

Draft Of The Proposed Nizam-e-Adal Regulation

Draft Of The Proposed Nizam-e-Adal Regulation
Pashtun Post Exclusive
Sun, 15-Feb-2009

A Regulation to provide for Nifaz-e-Nizam-e-Sharia’h through Courts in the
Provincially Administered Tribal Areas of the North-West Frontier Province, except the Tribal Area adjoining Mansehra district and the former State of Amb.
Preamble.---WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for Nifaz-e-Nizam-e-Sharia’h through Courts in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas of the North-West Frontier Province, except the Tribal Area adjoining Mansehra district and the former State of Amb; AND WHEREAS clause (3) of Article 247 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan provides that no Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) or a Provincial Assembly shall apply to a Provincially Administered Tribal Area, or any part thereof, unless the Governor of the Province in which the Tribal Area is situated, with the approval of the President, so directs, and in giving such direction with respect to any law, the Governor may direct that the law shall, in its application to a Tribal Area, or to a specified part thereof, have effect subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be specified in the direction; AND WHEREAS clause (4) of Article 247 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan provides that the Governor of a Province, with the prior approval of the President, may, with respect to any matter within the legislative competence of the Provincial Assembly, make regulations for the peace and good government of a Provincially Administered Tribal Area or any part thereof; NOW, THEREFORE, in exercise of the powers aforesaid, the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province, with the approval of the President, is pleased-
(i) to direct that the laws specified in column 2 of Schedule I shall apply to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas as afore said; and (ii) to make the following Regulation:-

Cry Of Justice From Swat

By Fatima Ahmed

Pashtuns should condemns the lashing of one of our daughter and sister and demands that it is not the few people holding the girl and lashing her, who need to be punished but the solution lies in confronting the ideologies, parties and institutions which sponsor these actions. The video of a 16 years old Afghan/Pashtun girl in showing the barbaric incident that happened in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, where girl is being whipped while she is forced to lay face down on the ground in broad day light, in front of hundreds of people; is now talk of the town across the world. Having been forced by the wide condemnation of the incident across the world spearheaded by the bloggers and facebook phenomena, the video was aired by the Punjab dominated Pakistani media. After watching this video and reaction of the Government of Pakistan, important political, social, religious figures and common people on the Pakistani electronic media, one is encouraged that if we speak up, the government can be forced

An innocent voice from Swat

By : Ghulam Dastageer

PESHAWAR: “Is anyone there to hear my voice and help me out? I, representing the whole Swat valley, beg for peace for my people. I ask for peace from you (audience), the government, politicians and the whole world. For heaven’s sake resolve this issue…restore peace to Swat. ” Eleven-year-old Paghunda --- the traditional Pakhtun name which can rightly be translated as the blossoming cotton flower--- was presenting the case of Swat before the participants of a seminar who were as power less as one can be in the bringing normalcy to the once peaceful but presently hellish Swat

Taliban to cease fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley

By NAHAL TOOSI

February 15, 2009

The Taliban announced a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley on Sunday after freeing a Chinese hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained missing.

Past peace deals with militants, including in Swat, have failed, and any agreement this time could re-spark U.S. criticism that the talks merely give insurgents time to regroup and rearm. Pakistan's government, however, insists that it cannot rely on force alone to defeat the al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in its regions bordering Afghanistan.

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The Pakistan Swat District is a settled area and is now the centre of battle between Army and local Taliban forces. The Army was deployed in the area in August 2007 with a hope that it will bring peace to the area.
On 18th of February the people of SWAT voted unanimously in favour of a Liberal and Progressive Party, the Awami National Party (ANP) in the hope that their bloodshed would stop. The ANP came into power in the province but its writ in SWAT has vanished in spite of heavy deployment of ARMY. The Taliban now rule almost the entire SWAT and has blown over 200 School, most of them girls schools. Recently, the Taliban banned girls%u2019 education and ordered all women to confine to their homes. The Taliban have set up courts where they openly execute people without a fair trial. The 1.8 million people of SWAT have been kept hostage by a handful of Taliban. The human rights violations are extremely gross .

Barbarism in Swat

By Khurshid Khan
Swat's Sangota Public School was blown to smithereens on Oct 7, 2008 — a dark day in the history of the area. This convent school was established in 1964 by Miangul Jahanzeb, popularly known as Wali sahib, the last ruler of Swat who not only donated land for the school but also provided generous financial aid for its construction and operations. It was renowned for its quality of education in the entire Malakand region. This epitome of architectural perfection was situated in a beautiful and enchanting location on the left bank of the meandering and bounteous Swat river, spreading the light of education. Most of the teachers were Irish nuns who had devoted their lives to educating Swat’s children.

MINGORA AND SAIDU SHARIF

Wrtten By : Farooq
These two towns at 991 metres have grown into each other and now form a single city, the biggest north of Peshawar and rawalpindi, saidu sharif, swat's traditional seat of government, remains the administrative headquarters of Malakand division (swat, dir and chitral) and swat district. Mingora is an old market town with a big bazaar, some government offices, many hotels and all the long distance transport offices. Local speech is Pashto. Mingora is the district headquarter and commercial centre of Swat. the Swat Museum, located between Mingora and Saidu, has a rich collection of Gandhara art which is worth viewing. For a traveler coming from the north, mingora's noise, traffic and frenetic atmosphere may come as a shock. Saidu Sharif is one of the twin cities of Mingora-Saidu Sharif. Saidu Sharif has several government buildings, the Swat Museum, the Tomb of Akund (RA) of Swat and the archaeological remains of the Butkara Buddhist Stupa.