Mawlawi Abdul Hakim—Taliban’s Negotiator-in-Chief at the Intra-Afghan Talks

Mawlawi Abdul Hakim—Taliban’s Negotiator-in-Chief at the Intra-Afghan Talks

On September 5, the Taliban announced its 21-member team that would engage in negotiations with Afghan government representatives at Doha, Qatar. The Taliban’s ”Chief Justice,“ Mawlawi Abdul Hakim, an “ultraconservative” and “hardline cleric,” was appointed chief of the negotiating team. He replaced Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai who, along with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had led the Taliban negotiations with the United States that culminated in the February 29 Doha Agreement. Stanikzai was appointed Hakim’s deputy (TOLO News, September 6; RFERL, September 10).

The new appointments to the Taliban negotiating team are significant. This is the first time that the Taliban is engaging in direct and official talks with the Afghan government. Since it lost power in November 2001, the Taliban has been waging an armed insurgency. While its violent campaign has enabled it to wrest control over a growing expanse of territory, this has not brought it to national power. The Taliban is now using negotiations to do so. As chief negotiator, Hakim will lead the Taliban’s attempt to negotiate its ascent to power in Kabul and also to reform and perhaps even replace the current Afghan constitution.

Who is Hakim, and what benefits does the Taliban hope to derive from him heading the negotiating team at the historic intra-Afghan talks?

Experience in Islamic Jurisprudence

Born in 1957 in the Panjwai District of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, Hakim is a member of the Ishaqzai tribe. He graduated from and subsequently taught at the Darul Uloom Haqqania religious seminary in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. This seminary, which propagates teachings of the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam, is the alma mater of some of the most prominent South Asian jihadists, including the Taliban’s founder-chief Mullah Mohammed Omar. Hakim likely became acquainted with Omar at this seminary. According to the Taliban, Hakim was a “close associate” of Omar and “played a key role in founding the movement.”  He went on to play an important role in the Taliban regime. Besides teaching at the Jihadi Madrassa in Kandahar during this period, he served in the Appellate Court and at the Dar ul-Ifta-ye Markazai [Central House/Department of Fatwa]” (Voice of Jihad, September 30).

Since 2001, Hakim has played an important role in shaping the structures of the judicial system of the Taliban’s parallel government. He rose rapidly in the hierarchy, serving as head of the Mahkama-e Tamiz [Court of Cassation] when Akhundzada was the “chief justice.” In 2016, when Akhundzada became the Taliban chief, Hakim succeeded him as “Chief Justice” of the Taliban judicial system (Voice of Jihad, September 30). He continues to hold the post of the Taliban’s “Chief Justice.”

Hakim’s knowledge of Sharia law and long experience in the Taliban judicial system is the “most important reason” for his appointment as chief negotiator in the talks with the Afghan government, according to an Afghan government official. The Afghan constitution, the nature of the Afghan state, sharia law and women’s rights under sharia law are the key issues on the Taliban agenda at the intra-Afghan talks. These are “Hakim’s areas of expertise.” Stanikzai lacks Hakim’s “vast knowledge and experience in Islamic jurisprudence” and his strength—i.e. his capacity to speak in English, which was needed during the talks with American officials—is not necessary for engaging with Afghan officials now, the Afghan government official said. [1]

Stature and Support

According to Pakistani journalist and Taliban expert Tahir Khan, Hakim’s “religious and jihadi background” makes him “without doubt an asset for the Taliban.” His appointment as chief negotiator is aimed at reassuring Taliban commanders and foot-soldiers that the “negotiations are in safe hands.” [2] The move is also aimed at signaling to Taliban religious conservatives that “there will be no compromise on the group’s core Islamic values.” [3]

Hakim is respected for his judicial expertise as well. Akhundzada is known to have sought his opinion on key matters, including decisions to announce a week-long reduction in violence in the run-up to the February 29 Doha agreement and to participate in talks with the Afghan government. [4]

Hakim’s stature within the Taliban is also enhanced by the fact that he was part of Omar’s inner circle and has been with the group since its inception. [5] Like most of the older generation of Taliban leaders, he is a cleric from Kandahar and therefore represents the Taliban’s “core constituency.” Additionally, he enjoys the respect due to someone born in Pajwai district, regarded as the Taliban’s spiritual homeland (TOLO News, September 6; RFERL, September 10). The decisions of the negotiating team would therefore be more acceptable to Taliban military commanders and the rank-and-file.

Importantly, Hakim is a member of the Rahbari Shura, the Taliban’s Quetta-based leadership council. The appointment of a man of his seniority and stature as negotiator-in-chief to the intra-Afghan talks is seen as an indication that the Taliban is “very serious” about the talks (Pajhwok, September 6).

Akhundzada’s Tightening Grip

In recent months, Akhundzada has been tightening his grip over the Taliban and the negotiation process through a string of appointments to powerful posts. In May, for instance, he replaced Ibrahim Sadr, the chief of the Taliban’s military commission, with Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob. Sadr’s opposition to talks with the Afghan government and to power sharing and compromise is said to have prompted Akhundzada’s decision. Yaqoob enjoys enormous prestige among the rank-and-file because of his lineage; he is Mullah Omar’s son. By appointing him as military commission chief, Akhundzada was no doubt seeking to draw on his influence to secure support for the ongoing talks and their outcome (see MLM, September 3).

Similar motivations underlie Akhundzada’s appointment of Hakim as chief negotiator. Hakim’s commitment to the Taliban’s Islamic values is well known and his stewardship of the Taliban negotiating team is expected to strengthen support for any agreement reached at the negotiation table. Hakim is a close confidante of Akhundzada and the two share a similar “vision” for the Taliban and Afghanistan, which is evident from the fact that the Taliban chief often consults with him.

Akhundzada has also tightened his grip over the negotiations by appointing close aides and Rahbari Shura members—who are only accountable to the Taliban chief—to the negotiating team. Of the 21-member negotiating team, 13 are from the leadership council. Close aides of Akhundzada in the negotiating team include Sheikh Abdul Hakeem, Maulvi Abdul Kabeer, Maulvi Noor Mohammad Saqib, Mullah Shireen Noorzai, Sheikh Qasim Turkmen and Abdul Manan Omari (Arab News, August 26).

The Taliban’s talks with American officials were steered largely by its political office in Doha. The Rahbari Shura has reasserted direct control over the negotiations with the appointment of the new team. Unlike the negotiating team led by the Doha political office, which had to “get approval from the Shura for decisions” during their talks with the Americans, the Hakim-led, Rahbari Shura-dominated team “is not required to seek approval of its decisions” from the leadership. [6]

A Pragmatist

His conservative and hardline views on religion notwithstanding, Hakim has shown himself to be a pragmatic leader. During the three-day Eid ceasefire in June 2018, Afghan civilians, security forces and Taliban fighters were seen celebrating the short-lived return to peace. Hakim was swift in reading the writing on the wall.

In a letter to the Rahbari Shura, he welcomed the Taliban’s decision to respond positively to the government ceasefire offer and urged the council to respond to the “legitimate demands” of the Afghan people for peace. He called on the Taliban to engage in “conditional or unconditional” peace talks. To turn down the requests of the Afghan ulema (Islamic scholars) and leaders of Islamic countries to engage in talks would cost the Taliban domestic and international financial and other support, he warned (Ariana News, August 8, 2018).

Since the start of the peace talks, the Taliban has come under immense pressure from the Afghan government, the international community and Afghan civilians to declare a ceasefire. As the Taliban’s chief negotiator, will Hakim steer the group toward announcing a ceasefire? He is unlikely to. Deep divisions exist within the Taliban over the ongoing talks with the Afghan government. Hakim will avoid taking the anti-talk hardliners head-on by calling for a ceasefire. His pragmatism will prompt him to be cautious.

Notes

[1] Author’s Interview, Kabul-based Afghan government official, November 17.

[2] Author’s Interview, Tahir Khan, Islamabad-based Pakistani journalist, who has been covering Afghanistan for several years, November 18.

[3] Afghan official, n. 1.

[4] Khan, n.2

[5} Afghan official, n.1.

[6] Khan, n.2