Pakistani politicians to discuss Taliban talks offer
Awami
National Party (ANP), a coalition partner in the present government, has convened
All Parties Conference (APC) on Thursday to deliberate on the Taliban offer for
talks by Taliban.
It is expected that the moot will be attended by at least 26
parties. However Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) have declined
to attend the APC.
This APC, a
brainchild of ANP, was being pursued following the assassination of senior ANP
leader and provincial minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour in December 2012. Taliban
had claimed the responsibility his killing.
It is
expected that the mainstream political parties will try to come up with a consensus
strategy to deal with TTP menace. According to ANP, the conference will be held
in camera because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
Some experts
say that some of the political parties are sympathizers of TTP, though they
refuse to accept this. As they know that entire proceeding will be recorded they
prefer to stay away from this.
According to
ANP all the major parties, including the PPP, PML-N, PML-Q, JUI-F and the MQM
have accepted the invitation to attend the conference. It is regretted that JI
and PTI had declined to participate in the event.
While JI
refused to attend the conference, the PTI leadership even declined to meet the
ANP delegation which wanted to extend the invitation.
Political
pundits have termed the conference a significant development after TTP expressed
willingness to hold conditional talks with the Government of Pakistan (GoP).
TTP
spokesman had expressed the willingness to talks if PML-N President Nawaz
Sharif, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and JI Amir Syed Munawwar Hasan acted
as guarantors for the talks. Nawaz has welcomed the peace talk offer but
refused to be a guarantor.
The GoP has
appreciated the willingness of TTP to talks but urged it to announce a 30-day
ceasefire as a precursor to peace talks. It is on record that TTP stepped up
attacks in recent months.
“First there
should be ceasefire and peace talks can be held only after it,” said Interior
Minister Rehman Malik.
“The nation
has rejected the system of Taliban, this is voice of majority, come forward,
announce a one-month ceasefire and then hold negotiations,” added Malik.
Some of the
critics have rejected TTP offer and accused the authorities of appeasement in trying
to broker peace with TTP in the past. They say such deals give militants time
to regroup before launching further attacks.
As opposed
to this some quarters had expressed fears that believe the recent attacks by
TTP were creating fears that violence could mar general elections scheduled to
take place by mid-May this year.
Despite making an offer for talks TTP still seems adamant at causing extensive damage and challenging government writ. On Thursday early morning they attack Maryan police station in Bannu and claimed responsibility for the suicide mission on the police station.
ReplyDeleteAfter the Bannu jail break last year, the militants launched a coordinated attack on another police station in the district.
Intelligence officials informed that the militants had fired rockets and stormed into the police station which led to clash between security forces and the attackers.
According to police officials six militants believed to be suicide bombers were killed and one policeman was injured as police tried to avert the attack.
TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said the group’s fighters had attacked the police station and added all the attackers were “suicide bombers and would fight until martyrdom”. He also said the attack was launched to avenge the killings of TTP fighters.