ISPR denies contact with Taliban, no peace talks in progress

ISPR denies contact with Taliban, no peace talks in progress

The media reports that Pakistan authorities were in talks with Taliban as part of the efforts to ensure durable peace and stability were widely welcomed by people of this country but the ISPR threw cold water on them by issuing a surprising denial on Tuesday.
A press release issued by ISPR termed such reports as concocted and baseless, as if it was a crime to hold dialogue for the sake of peace and national security interests.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik went a step further in dismissing these reports by declaring on Tuesday that the country would not initiate dialogue with Taliban unless they laid down arms. This is a strange logic as dialogue should be aimed at persuading
Taliban to lay down arms and live peacefully and what would be the need for such an engagement if militants lay down arms in advance.

There were also reports that Taliban offered truce with a view to creating congenial atmosphere for talks to succeed and that is why there were almost no suicide attacks since beginning of October. But the position adopted by both the military and civilian
organs of the state was regrettable as it not only conveyed the impression of still being dictated by the United States on the issue.

Despite clear and unambiguous decision of the All Parties Conference and unanimous resolutions of the parliament on the subject but also negated the Government’s own oft-repeated claims of pursuing a policy of 3-Ds – one of them being the ‘Dialogue’.

The denial is a cowardly act that makes it once again abundantly clear that we are unable to follow an independent line even if it is absolutely in the interests of Pakistan. Why not to hold dialogue with Taliban when the United States itself was eagerly
finding ways and means to engage Afghan Taliban in talks and President Hamid Karzai has formed a High Peace Council for the purpose, which also has the backing of the West and Pakistan?

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Posted by Ahmer Gul Khan on Nov 24 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry