PRIME Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's remarks that US special envoy Richard Holbrooke did not need to worry about the Swat peace accord, and that this was our country, would be welcome as far as they convey the sense that Pakistan was a sovereign state with the right to take its own decisions whether any outside power liked it or not. But since Mr Gilani also believed that the situation in the valley was returning to normal and that he was not concerned about Maulana Sufi Muhammad's statements, it is pertinent to record one's strong reservations. It is difficult to ignore whatever Sufi Muhammad pronounces, as he heads the TNSM and signed the peace deal on Tehrik-i-Taliban's behalf. His utterances on democracy and superior courts should ring alarm bells everywhere. TTP spokesman Muslim Khan maintains that his organisation would not be content with the introduction of Sharia in Malakand Division but would like to see it enforced all over the country. And, it should be understood, the Sharia that he has in mind is of the TTP's conservative mould, which is not how a large number of people in the country interpret it. About one of the main clauses of the peace accord, the laying down of arms by the TTP, Muslim Khan took a new line, asserting that they would do so only if the Sharia courts ordered them to do so. Clearly, there is little indication of the situation in Swat normalising. At the same time, the nation is quite worried at not only by the rhetoric that is coming out of Swat but also the conduct of the TTP. The abduction of seven security personnel belonging to the Frontier Constabulary on Monday is the latest incident of the violation of the agreement. There can be no better index of the nation's division on the issue than what is reflected in Monday's proceedings of the Senate. The MQM walked out of the House when Senator Babar Ghouri, Federal Minister from the party, could not get the Chair's satisfactory response to the question about the status of Parliament under Sharia. So did the PML(Q). There were voices from the Treasury as well as the Opposition questioning the relevance of presenting a resolution on the Swat deal after the President had signed it. It is obvious that the government has dealt with the matter most shoddily. The resolution should have been properly debated in the National Assembly and sent to the Senate rather than the President straightaway signing it. Unless the various political parties are on board and the people taken into confidence about the implications of an agreement of such significance, it would be hard to evolve a national consensus on such an important national issue.