LAHORE: Pakistan’s top opposition leader, former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, expressed concern Monday about a controversial peace deal with Islamist militants but backed off calls he made last month for a “revolution” to topple the government.
Unable to contain an insurgency through military force, Pakistan’s government agreed last week to let Taliban militants impose sharia, or Islamic law, in the northern Swat Valley region. Sharif said militants there are trying to export their particularly harsh version of sharia, in which the hands of thieves are amputated, women are forbidden from going outside, and adulterers are stoned to death.
“How do we deal with the situation in Swat?” Sharif asked in an hour-long interview with USA TODAY at his palatial home on the outskirts of this city. “They are now threatening to get out of Swat and take other areas into their custody. So we’ve got to avoid that situation.”
Sharif, head of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League, said that he opposes attacks by airborne U.S. drones on militant hide-outs as “counterproductive” and wants to see dialogue with more moderate Islamist groups.
Sharif downplayed fears that the nuclear-armed country could be taken over by Taliban militants, who are gaining strength both in Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan, where they are battling U.S. and NATO troops. He said the insurgency in Swat and border areas could be defused in just two years if sufficient economic development took place.
The News (Pakistan)
