I AM shocked at the statement of Barrister Baachaa that the conditional offer of dialogue by banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is ‘welcomed’ (Dec 28). I would like to tell the barrister that the TTP is in no position to lay down conditions for a dialogue with Pakistan because to start with it conceives democracy alien to Islam and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan un-Islamic.

So they know the Holy Quran and Sunnah better than our constitutional and religious experts?

As a matter of fact the government must ask them before the start of any dialogue whether they accept the writ of the state, because if they do then their action is treasonable.

They must come through parliament to bring about a change; otherwise there is no other conceivable way that they can ask for a change in the Constitution.

If they consider themselves independent of Pakistan then their attacks on the armed forces of Pakistan are an act of aggression and Pakistan has a right to take whatever action it deems fit.

In the event of a war, the Pakistani Taliban neither have the capacity nor the ability to fight a sustained war against a well-trained and well-equipped Pakistani army. Their guerilla warfare and its attritional nature can never achieve its goal of bringing about a change in the government. Let them be under no misconception that they are the custodians of Islam. Islamic theology is based on the Quran and the Sunnah. Let them sit and talk to our Pakistani ulema and prove that their religious views are based on the Quran and Sunnah, failing which they either accept the views of the Pakistani ulema or go their independent way. But under no circumstance can they use force.

Sura Baqarrah v.256 says that there is no compulsion in religion. The final arbiter is God, not man, and under no circumstance does Islam allow the taking of life. Can a minority group impose its will on the majority, thinking 167 million people are wrong and a handful of illiterates is right? What a logic!

SARDAR SHAH JANPeshawar