Does this reflect a change in state policy?
After the death of thousands of innocent people at the hands of terrorists, about 30 widely known clerics have come up with an edict declaring the terrorists’ activities un-Islamic. Those issuing the edict have declared that jihad comes strictly under the jurisdiction of the state and that suicide attacks are against the teachings of the Koran. Further, only a court of law has the authority to declare an act by an individual as blasphemous. Islam does not allow anyone to take law into his own hand or set up of a parallel judicial system. The clerics have also maintained that every school of thought and sect has the right to preach its beliefs remaining within the parameters of law while no one is allowed to spread hatred, verbally or through writing against any individual, sect or institution.
For decades the clerics used their seminaries as nurseries for raising the crops of terrorists. A well-known religious leader still takes pride in calling himself the father of the Taliban. Some of the clerics strongly advocated talks with the TTP leaders whose hands were drenched in the blood of thousands of innocent Pakistanis, both civilians and soldiers. No religious scholar condemned the attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore in 2010 where over 100 worshipers were killed.
It has been maintained that what the clerics did during the past several decades was in collusion with the establishment. This was not only the case under Zia but continued as a state policy in the 90s, then under Musharraf and the two elected governments. It would be a welcome development if the belated edict indicated a change in the state policy. The policy has harmed Pakistan in the past. Three decades should be enough to realise that good Taliban can transform into bad Taliban whenever it suited them, biting the very hand that had fed them. The alliance that Pakistan is trying to build and the economic projects it has joined demand a total and compete renunciation of state patronage to any terrorist network.