The Pakistani government has decided to send Deobandi scholars to Kabul to initiate the third phase of talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a UN designated terrorist outfit. 

“Mufti Taqi Usmani will be leading the delegation which would also include Ulema from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa considered close to the Haqqani Network, which is hosting the negotiations between the Pakistani military establishment and the TTP,” reported Pakistani daily Express Tribune citing official sources.

Born in India in 1943, Mufti Taqi Usmani, a Deobandi Islamic scholar and a former judge on the Shariat Appellate Bench of Pakistani Supreme Court, is a respected ulema among Jehadi militant groups of Pakistan and Afghanistan including the Taliban.

According to The Muslim 500, Usmani's chief influence comes from his position as a global authority on the issue of Islamic finance and Sharia law.

A 13-member Ulema delegation led by Usmani will be meeting with the supremo of the TTP, Noor Wali Mehsud, his close aide Khalid Khorsani and trusted commanders who have been staying in Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul since the last month as guests of “elder” brother Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Interior Minister of Afghanistan and chief of Haqqani Network.

“The Ulema would also seek the help of Sirajuddin Haqqani, to make the truce more effective and to put pressure on the TTP to “soften” their demands of FATA’s de-merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said the report. Besides,  the Ulema will talk to the TTP leaders on their demand of imposing Sharia law in the FATA region as Usmani is a leading scholar and judge of Sharia law.

“One of the main tasks of the Ulema delegation is to persuade the TTP to put an end to their nearly two decade of “ Jihad” because “there is no need for “Jihad” in Pakistan after Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan,” says Daud Khattak, a journalist of Gandhara News.

According to Pakistan watchers, earlier the government had insisted on sending a delegation of parliamentarians to Kabul for talks with the TTP and Haqqani and other Taliban leaders. But the Pakistani military establishment insisted that the main demand of demerger of FATA region was not acceptable at any cost. It was then decided to send the Deobandi scholar to Kabul to talk some sense to the TTP leaders.

Earlier the military establishment had sent a 50-member Tribal Jirga to Kabul but could not go beyond convincing the group to extend a ceasefire for three months.

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