Secondly, the legal code, Provincial Tribal Areas Regulations (PATA), was brought in force in Malakand Division by Bhuto regime in 1970s. Malakand Division was formed to be an administrative structure in which the Swat State was placed after its merger with Pakistan in 1969 along with District Dir. The PATA Regulations had allowed all executive, judicial and revenue powers to be exercised by the district administration assisted by official Jirga members. The Regulations opened ways for corruption, favoritism and misuse of powers. Besides, the corrupt officials of Pakistan posted in the valley to run administration disturbed the smooth and calm socio-political atmosphere of the valley. After a verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which declared PATA Regulations unconstitutional in the early nineties, the local administration lost most of its cherished powers. A deputy commissioner of district Dir is said to have been a frequent visitor of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the leader of the TNSM before a full fledged movement of the TNSM in the nineties.

Thirdly and most importantly, the people of Swat during the state rule were accustomed to a judicial system that would give immediate relief to the aggrieved party. The people of Swat got tired of their experience with the Regulations and wished for a judicial system that would give them instant relief. The TNSM leadership tapped this desire of the common people for instant legal relief by promising promulgation of the Sharia’t code. This earned the TNSM sympathies of the silent majority of the valley.

Interestingly, on the 7th of July 2007, a private Pakistani channel reported a press conference by the leaders of the TNSM (Sufi Mohammed faction) who have been reported to have said that if the military wanted peace in the area, the TNSM would support it. They disowned Maulana Fazlullah because they thought the Maulana had adopted a wrong policy when he started talking against the sate laws on his FM radio.

Maulana Fazalullah has been reported to have issued contradictory statements as soon as the action against the Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad was started by the security forces on the 3rd of July 2007. Hundreds of people talked to this scribe giving their comments about the phenomenon of militancy and a probable operation by the security forces in Swat. One just comes a few common comments repeatedly heard, like one Nasir, a young student from Bandai, said, “We are just fed up with the Maulana and his FM radio" and a house wife from Bara Bandai, who had remained under the influence of the Maulana’s FM radio for a short while, commented, “Thank God! I very soon realized that donating charity to the Maulana was an exercise in futility”. Taj Mohammad, a businessman of Mingawara, told, “We are the people who never liked what Maulana Fazlullah is advocating”. Musa Khan, a school teacher from Balogram, said, “There used to be peace and prosperity when I was a young boy. There used to be no Maulana advocating militancy at that time”. It is interesting to note that a local daily, Shamal Swat, reported a statement by the Maulana on the 7th of July 2007 that he was against violence and terrorism and that the recent deaths of the security forces in different attacks and ambushes were unfortunate. The Maulana has been reported to have said further that he never exhorted the people to be prepared for an armed conflict with the security forces. The same version of the story was reported in an Urdu Daily Express on the 8th of July 2007.

The socio-political activists of the valley have recently been making quite consistent efforts to counter the presently reported wave of militancy in the area. A Jirga (which has been quite an effective traditional and historical mechanism of conflict resolution in the Pashtoon society) has already been constituted that has members from elected representatives, political parties, district administration, and development organizations and from the traditional leadership of Swat valley.

A mammoth conference was organized by the local chapter of Awami National Party (a Pukhtun nationalist party having its support base mostly in the North West Frontier Province) on the 24th of June 2007 in Mingawara (the major town of Swat valley. The conference was attended by the representatives of Pakistan Peoples’ Party, Pakistan Muslim League, tehsil and district government, the defunct Tahrik-e-Nihazi-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), local media, academia, traditional elders, labour unions, cultural organizations and development organizations. The conference was organized under the theme of ‘Aulasi Aman Jirga Swat (Swat peoples’ consultations for peace)’.

The main issues that were thought to disrupt peace in the otherwise peaceful valley emerged from the views expressed in the conference to be poverty, underdevelopment, Byzantine structure and behaviour of the local administration, depletion of natural resources, lack of development planning, lack of coordination of the line district departments, the effects of the national and international power game through secret agencies and the lack of genuine democratic institutions. The conference had ended on a note of solidarity among different sections of the society in the beautiful valley swat. The well-attended conference also reinforced the image of the people in the valley to be a peace-loving population having least proclivity for any kind of militancy. In other words, they communicated their wish to be thought and seen as the people they think they are—peaceful, tolerant, civilized, mature and accommodative. The people of Swat valley also showed their desire for a consistent dialogue among the different stakeholders.

Since the 5th of July, there has been a continuous build up of the security forces around the area of the valley Swat, which has remained under the influence of Maulana Fazlullah, locally called as Nekpi Khel. Nekpi Khel is a vast area in the right bank of River Swat. It seems as if the decision to take action against Maulana Fazlullah has already been taken. One would just like to suggest more restraint, probably even more than was observed in the case of the Jamia Hafsa Islamabad, by the security forces of Pakistan in the case of Swat for several reasons.

Firstly, the civil society of the valley will get more time to rally public support for a more moderate view of socio-cultural issues.

Secondly, the common masses will be saved from an eventuality which is surely not of their making.

Thirdly, the idea of tolerance and plurality will emerge as the winner, which is the very purpose of a probable operation against Maulana Fazlullah.

Fourthly, the area-wise compass of an operation will surely be far larger and there is a strong probability that the innocent people will be affected in a very large number. There is no infrastructure in place even to provide basic emergency facilities of health and transportation in case of casualties. Moreover, the local administration does not seem to be prepared to perform in an emergency-like situation.

Lastly and most importantly, this is the season of tourist activities in the area. Thousands of people across the valley depend on the earnings of tourist related economic activities. A probable clash might disrupt the whole system and thousands of innocent people might be deprived of their only source of income.