This is the gamble in Swat, as Pakistani columnist Zubair Torwali has noted:
"With this truce, the government believes it has isolated the militants from the locals, and the militants believe they won because their demands are being met."
In reading some of the accounts, I am not sure to what extent locals want Islamic law per se or simply want autonomy. Part of the deal in allowing Sharia is that cases can no longer be transferred to or heard in Islamabad.
But certainly not any victory for secularism in Pakistan. One soon to be quite visible reminder: all future judges are to be bearded.
Will it work? If you end the "interference" of outsiders in these regions of Pakistan, will locals end support for groups who are in turn "interfering" elsewhere? Sharia for you, secularism for me?
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