Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have registered treason charges against a top pro-Taliban leader for making "anti-state" remarks, officials said on Sunday.
Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned group Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), or movement for the enforcement of Islamic system, was arrested last month in Peshawar city.
Muhammad brokered a peace deal with the Pakistani government in February to set up Islamic courts in the Swat valley and several other parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
But the deal failed as Taliban in Swat refused to give up arms and the authorities said that Muhammad also violated the deal by not asking the Taliban to lay down arms.
The police in Saidu Sharif in Swat registered the treason case against Muhamamd for making a speech at a public meeting against the state organs in April, Sajid Muhmand, an official, said.
Treason charges carry death sentence or life term in jail under the Pakistani law, legal experts said.
NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said the government will investigate the role of Muhammad in the violence in the Swat valley.
The government said Muhammad had earlier announced that he would declare those militants as rebels who do not surrender arms after the introduction of Islamic laws. But he did not honour his commitment.
Muhammad, father-in-law of Maulana Fazalullah, the Swat Taliban chief, has been missing since the security forces launched operation against the militants in early May. He appeared in Peshawar on July 26 and was arrested along with his two sons.
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