question about using temporary named pipe in the string for system

Hello, PHP gurus,

        I have a command that I want to run using system function. The command exploits temporary named pipes in the place of temporary files.  
          my command is 
paste   <(cut -f1  file1)  <(cut -f2  file2)    > final_file

         It works perfectly well if I just type it in my interactive shell.  But if I do a

<?php

$cmd = " paste   <(cut -f1  file1)  <(cut -f2  file2)    > final_file";

system($cmd); ?>

         I got the syntax error msg as
"sh: -c: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `('".   I have tried to 'escapeshellcmd' the  command and run it in system, then I got

paste: invalid option -- f Try `paste --help' for more information.

        Also tried exec.  I really want to take advantage of the temporary named pipes so I don't have to worry about the temporary files generated.  I've been googling around without much help.  Could anyone plz give me some hint? Thanks a lot
         ginger