10/01/09
Justice returning to Swat valley?
dawn.com, editorial, Thursday, 01 Oct, 2009
Courts are back in session in Pakistan's Swat Valley after a three-month hiatus because of an army offensive against Taliban militants. How well the judiciary performs may be crucial in ensuring that the insurgents do not return.
The Taliban gained sympathizers in Swat partly by exploiting long-standing grievances with the slow and corrupt judicial system, in which judges allowed proceedings to drag on indefinitely while lawyers milked more fees.
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The government hopes to do things differently this time.
Judges are now using new legal regulations that promise quicker justice and conformance to Islamic law — rules that were introduced as part of a peace deal struck with militants in February. But legal officials said that did not mean judges would be handing down floggings and executions — the kind of punishments favored by the Taliban.
'It is a newly born child,' Shah Jehan Khan Akhunzada, a white-haired judge, said of the revived judiciary while sitting in his wood-paneled office Tuesday in the court complex in Mingora, the valley's main town. 'Give this child a chance to grow up.'
In one worrying sign, courts are already struggling to process nearly 1,000 cases against militants.
The army began its offensive in Swat and surrounding districts in April after the Taliban violated the peace deal and moved into new territory just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. Disputes over how to implement the law — and whether the Taliban would enforce it — also helped unravel the peace pact.
The army has claimed to have killed more than 1,800 insurgents in the one-time tourist resort and taken back much of it from militant control. The military declared Mingora and other major cities cleared in early June, when the court hiatus began. But clashes and suicide attacks still occasionally occur and there are fears many of the militants escaped and could one day fight again.
The legal system introduced in the valley through the February deal had been promised for years to Swatis, even before the Taliban began spreading their influence in the region in 2007.
Those involved in cases were optimistic about the new system.
Zuhad Malook Khan, who is accused of murder, has been in custody since April 2008. He sat on a wooden bench in chains next to a police officer. Witnesses were recording statements against him under the gaze of the judge.
Under the previous system, there was no telling how long it would take to try Khan. The new regulations stipulate a verdict must be reached within four months, said prosecutor Abdus Salam.
'I am hoping a decision will be made even before that,' Salam said.
Saidur Rehman, 65, said he and his brothers have battled over land in a dispute dating to 1984. He was told to show up on Oct. 6 to lay out his case. 'I have hope for these courts and that justice will be done in my favor and this long, horrifying nightmare will end,' he said.
Since mid-August, lower-level judges have headed back to work in most of Swat and surrounding districts, and at least 500 new civil and criminal cases have been filed, lawyers and officials said. Higher level appeals courts have yet to start functioning.
The regulation's main points involve setting time limits on cases — parties can face fines for not showing up — while changing the titles of judges and courts to conform with Islamic norms. Judges, for instance, are now called qazis.
Decisions must conform with Islamic law. By that, legal advocates say, it is referring to the existing Pakistan penal code and Constitution, which already stipulate that no Pakistani law can run counter to the teachings of the Muslim faith.
Since the Taliban are no longer in control of Swat, they won't get to dictate how to interpret or apply the law, and thus the courts will function like the rest of the country, lawyers and judges said.
'The militants were illiterate in terms of Islam and worldly affairs,' said Aftab Alam, who heads a local lawyer's association. 'People were interested in getting shorter, quicker justice. Now the courts in Swat will move faster than the whole country.'
But plenty of obstacles remain to achieving a viable, just legal system in Swat — not least that police are still rebuilding, the government has yet to fully establish its authority and military operations continue.
'There is nothing resembling due process in terms of law enforcement in Swat right now,' said Ali Hasan Dayan, senior South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.
When asked if it was possible to dispense proper justice when strict timeframes and deadlines loom, district public prosecutor Said Naeem merely replied: 'Why not? This is our duty.'
The new regulation has given residents enough hope in the judicial system to turn to the courts for help.
Ayub Khan, 55, was among the some 2 million residents of Swat and surrounding districts who was temporarily displaced during the military operation.
The shopkeeper said authorities had yet to give him the compensation and rations he and the other refugees were promised.
He showed up hoping he could persuade a judge to issue an order in his favor.
'If this system is not in place to give justice to poor people like me, then what is the point?' he asked.
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