Supporters of the claim that as a result of this regulation the girls of Swat will be able to go to school. That is a bad spin on a poor argument, if ever there was any. We have just signed a deal with a group of people who have been bombing and shutting down girls' schools in Swat because they were un-Islamic – and we want our people to believe that we signed it because it would have the benefit of reopening girls' schools. Of course they will not bomb these schools now – they do not need to. They get to just say that the schools are un-Islamic and the provincial administration is now bound to comply. We have just lent the support of the entire state machinery to their version of Islam.

The Taliban are the same people who think that polio vaccines are a form of birth control and need to be banned. They are the same people that locked up girls in the home during their rule in Afghanistan. These are the same people that have operated an entire system of madrasas in Pakistan for several years spewing hate against all those of a different religion or sect, as well as those who interpret differently.

These are the same people that think it is okay to buy children from their families with promises of heaven and strap them on with suicide vests. These are the same people that would behead you for growing poppy under their system but think it okay to cultivate and sell heroin to the world. On what basis are we expecting anything else to happen under their administration in Swat?Islam does not lie in the facade of those who claim it most loudly. It has to lie in the content of our actions. We have done much worse than just handing over territory to these people: we have handed over our religion to them. We have accepted that theirs is an Islamic system when we have been claiming that those who kill innocents can never be followers of Islam. Today, we have given these non-followers of Islam the license to interpret Islam.

The Nizam-e-Adl has done nothing to solve the problem and much to worsen it. The pressure has been taken off the Taliban and they are free to rearm and re-establish control in the area so the next time they will fight even harder. The group that has bombed our cities and terrorised our populace in the name of Allah continue to solidify themselves and we are all set to ignore that under the guise of this regulation. Much as one desperately hopes that one is wrong on this – the men in black will be back.

Finally, it is in this broader context that there has concern over and criticism of the Adl Regulation. The issue is not the Adl Regulation, instead, if the promise of it will be fulfilled-the promise that extends beyond the legal aspects. The promise will not be easily fulfilled. In fact, the expectations from it are highly unrealistic.