Originally a Taliban idea endorsed by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and accepted on behalf of the United Front (formerly the Northern Alliance) by President Burhanuddin Rabbani in early January 1998, the proposal took shape as a proposed commission of ulema, or religious scholars, to settle the Afghan conflict in the light of the shariah. However, no progress was made until, once again, Prime Minister Sharif intervened two months later, in March, by inviting Mullah Rabbani, now head of the Taliban shura in Kabul, to Islamabad and obtained from him an agreement in principle for the convening of a steering committee in preparation for the ulema commission.