TALEBAN-STYLE puritanism is rapidly moving across northwestern Pakistan, with bans on music in private cars and buses and arrest for those who fail to stop at prayer times.
As hardline rulers impose the Islamic system in North-West Frontier Province, even in Peshawar, the regional capital, officials are cracking down on gambling dens.
Akram Khan Durrani, the new Chief Minister of the province, has vowed to impose strict religious rule, saying that implementation of Islamic laws will be his first priority. Mr Durrani, a leader of the five-party Islamic alliance, was voted to power by the state assembly on the weekend. He received 78 of the 119 votes polled. His closest rival won 41.
In his first speech, he said that he would crack down on alcohol and gambling, which are illegal, although there are often violations in private. The pro-Taleban religious Right, riding high because of anti-US sentiment, achieved stunning successes in the recent polls, winning heavily and taking control of the province and of Baluchistan, the key areas bordering Afghanistan.
The Islamic alliance, known as Mutahida Majlis-i Amal (United Council for Action), has agreed to join a coalition government in Baluchistan after it struck a power-sharing deal with the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League (Q) faction. The agreement was concluded after Mir Zafarullah Jamali, the Pakistani Prime Minister, said that he would soon declare Friday a day of rest, instead of Sunday.
The rise to power of radical Islamists in provinces that had close links with the Taleban regime across the border is a cause of serious concern to the United States and to the Afghan Government. Western diplomats said that the installation of a radical Islamic Government has emboldened Afghan rebels, who have intensified attacks on American troops in Afghanistan’s Pashtun-dominated region close to the Pakistani border.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister and military officials have said that Islamabad would continue to co-operate with America in the War on Terror and that provincial governments had no say over the key Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan. The threat of the collapse of his fragile coalition has, however, forced Mr Jamali to seek the support of the Islamists.