Defenders of the deal argue it will drain public support for extremists who have thwarted longstanding calls in Swat for reform of Pakistan's snail-paced justice system.
But critics worry that it rewards hard-liners who have beheaded political opponents and burned scores of schools for girls in the name of Islam - and that it will encourage similar demands in other parts of the nuclear-armed country.
Militants in Swat declared a cease-fire in February after the provincial government agreed to introduce Islamic law in the surrounding Malakand division of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, a largely conservative region that stretches north along the Afghan border for hundreds of miles.
The measure was part of a peace deal brokered by Sufi Muhammad, a white-bearded cleric who led tens of thousands to fight US forces in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but later renounced violence.
The terms of the agreement remain murky, fueling concern that it cedes effective control over the region to the private army of Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, the cleric's son-in-law. Officials have said radical groups allied with Al Qaeda have helped fight security forces in Swat.
Asked yesterday in a television interview whether the new courts would hear complaints from Swat residents about Fazlullah or his followers, Muhammad said they could not.
"We intend to bury the past," Muhammad told the ARY channel, sitting off-screen because he considers photographic and TV images to be against Islam. "Past things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace."
Asked whether the Taliban would enjoy such immunity, a provincial government minister pleaded for calm so that peace could take hold.
"Everyone should understand what we have gone through and what kind of hardship people in Swat have suffered," Wajid Ali Khan said. "We can look into any disputes and controversy at some later stage."
