April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad demanded the government abolish conventional justice in the northwestern Malakand area by April 23, replacing it with Islamic courts, or face a new round of protests.

“All the courts including the Supreme Court are not Islamic,” Rizwanullah Farooq, Muhammad’s son, said by telephone today, speaking on behalf of his father. “We don’t want these judges and we do not recognize them as they are preachers of unholy laws.”

President Asif Ali Zardari approved the so-called Nizam-i- Adal, or Justice System, last week to introduce Islamic law in Malakand. Under this regulation, conventional courts were to be replaced by a Shariah system of justice from April 14, the day the law was approved.

“These things take time,” Afrasiab Khattak, senior leader of the Awami National Party, which governs the North West Frontier Province, said by telephone from Peshawar. “We are in the process of appointing the new judges.”

Muhammad, whose militant group Tehrik-e-Nifaaz Shariat Muhammadi led the campaign for the imposition of Shariah law in the area, told a gathering of his supporters yesterday that there’s no room for democracy or elections in Islam.

Under a peace accord reached in February, the government accepted the demand of pro-Taliban militants for Islamic law in return for ending two years of fighting in the area. Muhammad threatened on April 9 to withdraw from the peace accord to protest against a delay in the imposition of Islamic law.

Two Laws

“There cannot be two laws in one area,” Amir Izzat Khan, a spokesman for the group said by telephone today. “The duplication of the legal system created confusion and anarchy. It is important that the regular courts are abolished.”

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said in an interview with Dawn News television today that Islamic law will not be limited to this area and will be spread to the rest of the country.

Malakand, a district in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, includes Swat Valley, once Pakistan’s biggest tourist destination. Swat Valley is 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, has said he is “troubled” by the accord in Swat, where militants have burned schools, banned education for girls and beheaded government officials. President Barack Obama said last month the U.S. will increase aid to Pakistan in exchange for security forces there cracking down on terrorists in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s government says it is doing all it can to combat militants and is pursuing a strategy of selective military action, coupled with political and economic development programs, to try to persuade tribal leaders to expel foreign fighters sheltering along the border with Afghanistan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Farhan Sharif in Karachi, Pakistan fsharif2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 20, 2009 04:15 EDT