Former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has rejected the notion that the Taliban government in Afghanistan was an Islamic one.
“The Taliban regime cannot be termed a model Islamic government, as little of what they did was Islamic,” Qazi Hussain Ahmad said.
The Taliban, he said, should seek guidance from religious scholars. “They are students and need guidance from scholars,” he told a news conference in Peshawar.
He, however, praised the Taliban’s efforts to force the US to pull out of Afghanistan.
Qazi said the Taliban were a force to be reckoned with and a reality in geo-politics.
“Until Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar is included, peace talks between US and the militant group will not be credible.”
He was sceptical of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it would be leaving at a time when the situation in the region was still unclear.
“It is not clear what will happen if the US troops leave Afghanistan,” he said, adding, “The Taliban want their own government, while the Hizb-e-Islami and other Afghan parties want an elected government.”
He said Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, should arrange a dialogue in the war-torn country before the US departs to save the region from further anarchy.
Qazi also lauded the Arab Spring and the consequent victory of Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia and also the Turkish resurgence. However, he regretted that while the Islamic world was making giant strides towards progress, Pakistan was going the other way.
He also stressed on the early completion of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project to overcome the energy shortage in the country.
