Punjabi Taliban: Sharif says phrase unfair, misleading

PML-N believes term will harm its image.

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday reiterated his objection to the term ‘Punjabi Taliban’.

Sharif said he had never used the term.

“The interior minister first used this word in the cabinet meeting. I had asked the prim minister even then whether the terrorists responsible for killing citizens in Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be given the name Sindhi and Pakhtun Taliban,” Sharif said.

He ‘warned’ Rehman Malik to avoid using the term. He said the PML-N believed that the term will harm its image. “It minimises our chances of coming into power because the Punjab province is being run by the PML-N.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2011.