Pakistan: Negotiating Away the Writ of the State

Provincial authorities in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province announced Feb. 16 that they will implement a new Shariah-based regulation as part of a deal with Pashtun jihadist forces in the Swat region to end the insurgency there. This move likely will not achieve the authorities' desired results, due to disagreements among Pakistan's various stakeholders regarding this initiative and the Taliban's drive to expand their sphere of operations in Pakistan. Not only will the process further erode the writ of the Pakistani state it will also undermine U.S. interests in neighboring Afghanistan.