...Arabic for
students...
mainly rests with their territorial control in Afghanistan and a ’religious’ narrative of the struggle against the ’foreign occupation’ of Afghanistan. Kabul believes they can be delegitimised if Pak religious scholars issue a fatwa, or religious decree, against the Taliban’s armed resistance.
Former president Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
...A product, probably the sole product, of the
Southern Alliance...
tried hard to pursue the Pak government and religious scholars from KP, including
Maulana Fazlur RehmanDeobandi holy man, known as
Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
and Maulana Samiul Haq
...
the Godfather of the Taliban,leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as
Mullah Sandwichfor his habit of having two young boys at a time...
, but all attempts proved futile. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
Kabul is still confident as army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa reportedly promised the Afghan government in October that he would try to obtain a fatwa from Pak religious scholars.
To what extent a fatwa can affect a resistance movement such as that of the Afghan Taliban is debatable; it is not certain who will issue and support such a decree, as Pak religious scholars have in many instances declared the Afghan Taliban’s resistance a jihad. It is no secret that most leaders of the Afghan Taliban studied in Pakistain’s madressahs and that sectarian affinity still exists between the two. Nevertheless, as part of a Pak media delegation that recently visited Kabul, this writer felt that Afghan officials were hopeful that an anti-Taliban fatwa would come from Pakistain soon.
As Pakistain’s media is busy covering internal political crisis, Afghanistan is rarely discussed at public forums; the Foreign Office and ISPR have also not issued any substantive statement on the issue of Afghans anticipating a fatwa. In connection with the army chief’s visit to Kabul in October, the media only reported on the establishment of high-level contacts between the two countries and formation of working groups to increase military, intelligence and economic cooperation, apart from evolving a joint mechanism for the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistain. These were positive developments and will, indeed, help reduce the trust deficit between the two countries. Nevertheless, the reported fatwa component has not been highlighted in the media.