Should Pakistan Declare Houthis Terrorists?

Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi has declared Yemen's Houthis terrorists and remarked they have no connection with Islam.

Key points

• The Makkah Joint Defense Agreement notes an armed attack on Pakistan, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia will be treated as an attack on all three.
• Add ProPakistani to Preferred Sources and see more of our stories in Google Search and Top Stories.
• This topic matters since Pakistan has just entered a much deeper security relationship with Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
• Pakistan can stand with Saudi Arabia without pretending that every Pakistani Muslim has been consulted.

Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi has declared Yemen's Houthis terrorists and remarked they have no connection with Islam. Fine. He is entitled to that opinion. But the bigger question is this: who represents Pakistan?

Pakistan has millions of Muslims belonging to different schools of thought. They do not have one cleric, one political party or one foreign policy position. There is no law that notes a Pakistani religious scholar can speak for all of them, especially on a foreign war involving Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States, and Israel. Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi Calls Houthis Terrorists. Notably, the Makkah Defense Alliance.

Notably, the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement notes an armed attack on Pakistan, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia will be treated as an attack on all three. Pakistan has additionally described the agreement as defensive and not directed against any particular country.

So there is a perfectly legitimate debate regarding Pakistan's foreign policy. If our leaders believe the Houthis are a threat to Saudi Arabia, they can say so.

If Pakistan wants to defend Saudi territory under its new defense arrangement, that is additionally a matter for the administration and Armed Forces to consider. But turning that foreign policy into a religious verdict is another matter.

Ashrafi's comments are especially interesting since the Houthi war is not simply a Sunni versus Shia argument. The Houthis themselves describe their fight as resistance against Saudi intervention and foreign influence in Yemen.

Their opponents describe them particularly differently. That is precisely why the matter is political as much as it is religious.

And Pakistan has a history of paying a heavy cost when regional wars are imported into domestic religious politics. There is another uncomfortable question. Do Pakistani Clerics Represent all Pakistanis?

In practice, the answer should be obvious. They represent themselves, their organizations and, in some cases, particular schools of thought.

Pakistan's Constitution itself recognizes different Muslim sects in its Islamic provisions. It additionally provides for the Council of Islamic Ideology as a constitutional advisory body.

That does not mean every cleric gets to matter a national religious position. And it certainly does not mean a declaration from one cleric changes Pakistan's legal position.

If Pakistan wants to formally designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization, that is a decision for the state under the country's legal framework.

Ashrafi's statement does not do that. And perhaps Pakistan should be careful regarding something else.

Calling an entire movement "un-Islamic" can easily turn a geopolitical dispute into a sectarian one inside Pakistan. That helps nobody.

It can protect its strategic relationship with Riyadh without making every foreign-policy disagreement a religious test.

And if the state wants to call the Houthis terrorists, it should do so through the state. Not through a cleric speaking as if he represents 250 million individuals. The views expressed here belong to the author. Stay Connected with ProPakistani.

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Taken together, the developments around should Pakistan Declare Houthis Terrorists? Point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.