APC opens in Islamabad to formulate joint approach on terrorism

The All Parties Conference started in Islamabad on Thursday to announce a joint stand against terrorism and to discuss response to the Taliban dialogue offer.

Organized by Awami National Party‚ about 27 political parties and lawyer organizations are participating in the conference.

Opening the conference‚ ANP Chief Asfand Yar Wali Khan appealed to the participants to adopt a collective strategy to overcome the problem of terrorism.

He said terrorism is not the problem of present government only‚ rather it will also be problem for the coming governments. He said the purpose of this conference is to learn from the collective wisdom of political leaders.

He said that currently the country is facing two major problems. One is the menace of terrorism and extremism and the second is the economy. He said when there would be peace in the country we would be able to have socio-economic development.

He said all the political parties are taking part in the conference and to adopt a joint strategy to cope with the terrorism.

Senator ANP Shahi Syed said that terrorism is a collective problem of all and we all have to find out a way forward to resolve it through the process of dialogue. He said bloodshed is not the answer to the problem of terrorism.

Another MNA of ANP Bushra Gohar told Radio Pakistan that the political leadership have the key to bring out the country out of the menace of terrorism. She was optimist that a strategy would be adopted in this regard later today by the members of the conference. She urged for developing consensus on the issue and said ANP has provided a platform to this address this problem.

The idea of the APC was initiated after the assassination of senior ANP leader and provincial minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour in December 2012.

Only ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’ and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf stayed away from the conference. They said the ANP want to use the moot for political motives.

Organizers said the conference will also discuss and come up with a joint response to the Taliban conditional dialogue offer.

Pakistani Taliban in a video interview offered talks to the security forces on February 4. The government has asked the Taliban leadership to declare a ceasefire first before the talks are to be started.

The Taliban have so far refused to announce ceasefire and also attacked a police station in the northwest early Thursday, just hours before the conference started in Islamabad.

The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, major opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), led by former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, and dozens of other key parties are attending the conference.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Feb 14 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.