PAKISTAN entered a potentially dangerous new era yesterday after its parliament ratified a bill establishing a separate Islamic legal code for the Swat Valley, dividing the country into areas ruled by the state and those by sharia law.

The bill, passed unanimously by parliament and signed off late on Monday night by pro-US President Asif Ali Zardari, is the culmination of a controversial peace deal signed in February with Taliban militants who have waged a bloody 18-month campaign for control of the former tourist region.

The Nizam-a-Adl regulation effectively cedes control of the entire Malakand province, less than 200km north of the capital Islamabad, to Islamic extremists in exchange for a ceasefire between the security forces and local Taliban militants who have terrorised the community.

Mr Zardari had delayed signing the bill, saying he wanted to see peace restored to the valley first, but relented under pressure from his own party and the hard-line Muslim clerics who brokered the deal but accused the Government last week of reneging on it.

The legislation has been greeted with alarm by analysts and human rights groups, who warn it will further diminish the authority of the weak civilian Government and embolden the militants to move their writ beyond the Swat.

Retired general Talat Masood said the Government had chosen "the path of least resistance, which has dire consequences for the future of Pakistan".

"It will change the entire complexion of the country," General Masood said, warning that the issue would not be confined to Malakand. "My view is (Islamic extremism) will probably spread over all the country west of the Indus. No one is defining what Pakistan should be - there's no ideological or intellectual clarity."

Pakistan was probably headed into a violent Islamic cycle in which the country would be ruled once again by right-wing forces with religious links, he said.

Even before parliamentary approval, judges trained in Islamic law had begun hearing cases in Swat, and Taliban fighters are said to be in control of much of the region. A video smuggled out of the area last month showed a young woman being publicly flogged for allegedly leaving her house in the company of a man who was not her blood relative.

Since the February deal, Taliban militants have reportedly been pouring into the Swat Valley. US officials say the deal has given the Taliban and its al-Qa'ida allies an advantage in their long-running battle against Pakistan's military.

"This is a rest stop for the Taliban, it's nothing more," one Washington official told The Wall Street Journal.

Pakistani and US officials estimate as many as 8000 militants are now based in Swat, nearly double the number in the area at the end of last year.

The militants have begun to spread - at least 13 were killed in clashes with security forces and local militiamen in neighbouring Buner last week after tribal elders there failed to convince Taliban infiltrators to leave.

Pakistan's English-language newspaper The Dawn reported yesterday that 120 Taliban, including a group of militants who had taken over the local police station and an important Sufi shrine, left Buner at the weekend.

Taliban militants warned before the parliamentary vote that MPs who opposed the pact were guilty of apostasy - a crime punishable by death in parts of the Muslim world.

Talking to the local media after the bill was passed, Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said Pakistan's parliament had proved it was brave and Islam-friendly.

Source: The Australian