Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009

The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (English: Order of Justice) was a controversial act, passed on April 13, 2009, of Pakistan's central government that formally established Sharia law in the Malakand division.

In the wake of the U.S. invasion of neighboring Afghanistan and the resurgence of the Taliban, regions surrounding the Afghan-Pakistani border suffered great destabilization. After the siege of Lal Masjid in 2007, Pakistani troops and Islamic militants vied for control of the Swat Valley. Reports suggested that hard-line cleric Maulana Fazlullah and his Taliban-aligned Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) had established control of 59 villages in the region and as much as 70 percent of the Swat.

In an effort to end the violence the Awami National Party-led provincial government of the North-West Frontier Province negotiated the release in 2008 of Sufi Muhammad, the founder of TNSM and father-in-law of Fazlullah, once he had renounced violence and agreed to work towards a political solution.

Muhammad took part in negotiations that led to the announcement of a temporary ceasefire in the Malakand region on February 16, 2009. The provincial government agreed to allow the implementation of Sharia in the region once violence had stopped. Muhammad traveled to Swat to discuss peace with Fazlullah and his followers, who agreed to observe the ceasefire. On February 24, 2009 Muslim Khan, spokesperson of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) publicly announced that his group would observe an indefinite ceasefire. The ANP sent the bill to President Asif Ali Zardari, who delayed signing it into law until "the writ of the government [had] been established."

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