PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif addressing the All Parties Conference in Islamabad on Thursday. PHOTO: INP
ISLAMABAD: An All Parties Conference (APC), organised by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F), called for immediately holding peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, Express News reported on Thursday.
The APC decided that all stakeholders will hold talks, including the government and the tribal elders, to formulate a strategy.
Headed by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the conference was attended by representatives of the tribal areas and political leaders including Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, PML-Quaid president Chauhdry Shujaat Hussain, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chairman Mehmood Achakzai and Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Pakistan chief Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) Makhdoom Amin Faheem said that his party would support every step to be taken for peace according to the Constitution.
Maintaining that his party had also been the victim of terrorism and had made many sacrifices, Faheem said that President Asif Ali Zardari “secured the country with the slogan of ‘Pakistan Khappay’”.
Nawaz urged all political parties to play their due role in tackling challenges being faced by the country. “We should keep aside our political differences and play our due role for maintaining peace in the country,” he said while appreciating JUI-F for holding the conference.
Chaudhry Shujaat emphasised that not every problem can be solved with force, talks should be held instead.
Tribal politicians who were not invited to the moot had also expressed confidence in the conference’s ability to restore peace.
Expressing willingness to enter peace negotiations with the government, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had earlier named three senior politicians – Nawaz, Maulana Fazl and Jamaat-e-Islami amir Syed Munawar Hasan – to act as guarantors.
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What a tragedy for Pakistan!!!.The 45,000 people, the women and children these barbarians killed must be turning in their graves. I cry for my country...cry motherland.
The best bad news for seculars ... lol
my dears do u know the realities,there r ni single ttp there r more local organizations also which organized due to failuer of govt ret and they maintain their peace by therself and they r also bombing by security forces also,although they r nt the challinging force,who is responsible fr their killings?they r thousands in numbers bt they r gone now we should take fr alive one,plz do nt cmnts like an unhuman u should also feel our loses also,when u c ur child that he is bombing by state although he is inocient what u will do,u will go to welcome them?
I appreciate
Hussain, that is absolutely correct!
Who is talking to whom and who even believes.
@Rex Minor: I agree with your views. Taliban presently in a position of strength are dictating terms and making a clear statement 'Take it or leave it'.
APC = All Parties Conference ?? oh really.
There are 162 Political Parties registered with ECP, so where are they ?
it should be called social gathering of like minded groups, instead of All parties Conference. even there is no representation of Big and famous parties.
Such a Waste of time. Plz Do some thing Real which is infavor of the Country instead of "Look Busy Do Nothing."
@Enlightened:
The Talibans do not negotiate talks. One appeases or confronts with force! The yanks took a decade to learn that they are no match for the Talibans. Pakistan Govt.has not the time left for the debate nor the force to challenge them..
Rex Minor
So glad wisdom prevailed at last.
Have Taliban resigned from RAW and MOSSAD that we are so happy to negotiate with them?
Funny these same people were previously telling us that Taliban are CIA, MOSAD, RAW agents. Do they now want us to negotiate (surrender) to CIA, RAW, MOSSAD?
So are all the liberals going to start calling mian sahib taliban sharif? If not why the double standards?
Not surprised that the extremist terrorists would trust and find something in common with these religious right-wing personalities, who continue to betray Pakistanis, particularly minorities.
Saudi-backed parties give a go-ahead to immediate talks with Saudi-sponsored militants. What a sham! So a win win situation for the House of Saud.
The Maulana is pleading for talks as Taliban has pointed the gun on his head.
What's wrong with people? Are you willing to overlook or forgive the crimes they have committed? They have killed our women and children in homes, schools and markets. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have lost their lives. No talks with them, just crush them
S U R R E N D E R
@Sidrah:
exactly, and this is why i find it ironic that PTI and IK supporters are so dejected to not see him here. this is not a good strategy. taking credit for it now doesnt validate a bad decision and bad thought process. the taliban are not a legitimate entity recognized by the pak army or the government. they are rogue anti state actors that are bent upon tearing up the fabric, killing civilians and doing it without remorse. if there is going to be negotiation, i would say to the taliban, express remorse for what you have done, apologize to the families of soldiers you slaughtered and put down your arms unconditionally. any fighting or attacks will result in severe retaliation from the state. but then the issue is, it is a attribute of honorable people to abide by and stick to their word or an agreement. animals like the taliban to me atleast, do not fit that category. what will happen, invariably, is that they will break the agreement over a non-issue and we'll be back at square one.
Govt of Pakistan should hold talks with Taliban after they agree to fulfill the following conditions-<
Taliban should issue an apology for killing innocent people and give an undertaking that they will not indulge in any type of violence in future.
They should hand over their arms and ammunition to the govt.
They should affirm their faith in constitution of Pakistan and would not press for any changes in the same.
Appeasmnt is a better opton than surrender! Pakistanis and the Govt should not ignore the new yanky's strategy of regime change by encouraging oppositions to take up arms against the legitimate Govts.Talibans are poised to take the conflict across the country and Nawaz Sharif knows it.
Rex Minor
They only understand the language of force, nothing else. Who are you going to talk to? Those who are fighting you and made the life of our brethren miserable. They have ruined every thing from Kashmir to Karachi. They have halted all development. What constitutional authority do they have? Who are you going to talk to? And without them first laying down arms? If you talk like this means you are going to talk to all who will take up weapons. First deal with them. They must unconditionally surrender their weapons and explain from where they got those weapons and then the courts will decide if they are guilty or not. We can then may be give amnesty and rehabilitate them. Not until then.
Like the ANP sponsored APC, the JUI hosted APC is just a political gimmick. Why did the JUI leadership hold such a conference when it was sharing power with PML(Q) in the quasi democracy from the platform of MMA under the umbrella of Gen(R) Musharraf. TTP is an axillary outfit of Afghan Taliban, the delegation of which refused to meet Mulanna Fazalur Rehman during his recent visit to Qatar, although the MMA rule in KPK facilitated the spread of taliban from FATA to the settled districts including Peshawar.
Political point scoring in an election year, quite pathetic for the party that represents the largest population base in Pakistan! Have these politicians ever consider ramifications of their selfish short term motivated motives? This pain is not going to go away that easily, only a simpleton living in their deluded world can expect everything to be fine once we start talking to our tormentors.
@Something Clever: Can you re-state what you stated above, but this time as a more logical and coherent argument?
No negotiations, no mercy - smoke them out of their rat holes and kill all Taliban
Beginning of the end....actually come to think of it, beginning of the end happened quite a while ago when we created and nurtured these strategic assets...this is actually the end !
Negotiations with Taliban means to surrender to terrorists.
Anyone who at anytime in the past years had written anything against Imran regarding his stance on resolving the terrorism problem should fill up the palm of his/her hand (chulloo bhar paani) and drown in it!
@ali: @adeel: @ikhlaas: So, you're saying the decisions of people who PTI supporters consider the lowest of the low and bring up the incompetence of those people every time they open their mouths somehow makes Imran Khan right now? How convenient. If you want to play that game, you have it a little backwards. The fact those people are supporting talks would actually be confirmation of Imran Khan's incompetence. Unless you want to destroy pretty much the whole foundation of your arguments in favor of electing him by creating an overwhelming amount of Khantradictions, at least. For Imran Khan's image, this is either a bad thing or nothing. But most certainly not a situation where the "we told you so" attitude can be rightfully used.
congratulations Pakistanis :) i am loving it
The desire to be Amir ul Momineen is not going away. Simply the idea of Molvi Nawaz Sharif coming to power is shivering. He will give free reign to terrorists, who would strengthen under his rule, and will target only his opponents when some other party comes to power. Exactly what happened under MMA.
The APC was held to discuss the negotiations with the Taliban but Makhdoom Amin Fahim has not spared even this opportunity for indulging in flattery and sycophancy. Pakistan Khappay. Why do these politicians behave like the slaves of their part heads?
Peace Talks Should be held with Human not with animals(taliban )
Taliban have named three guaranters for Government of Pakistan but who will be the guaranter for the taliban to say that they will also abide by the agreement.
Afraid of TTP bombing them in the general election campaign?
@usman well not a bad idea why don't you start raising your voice to make him one
IK has been proved to be right once again!
@Huzaifa zia: IK refused to participate in APC !!! he was invited ... he doesnot require any other party to tackle national issues bcs he is a SuperMan ... he nly requires 90 days to end awl the evils in Pakistan ... so lets make him care taker PM for 90 Days :D
Do we hold peace talk eitther with,Taliban,Punjabi Taliban,LET/LJ,/Sapiah E Mohd/BLA/BRA/ etc
Taliban is not a political party. They are not accumulated / not organised. Whom to call where for which meeting .
@Rizwan Ali: World may have our counting, but not theirs
Any one party had the guts to accept that Imran Khan's viewpoint was correct from the very start? Now it is a mere election stunt! ZERO!
No word against LEJ, Molana Sahab, don't you think you biased...??????
@Faheem
Atleast they have a policy :/
So are Taliban now willing to accepting constitution of Pakistan?
jui f will never call pti as pti is set defeat juif in kpk
I protest against these Black Sheep...!!!
as usual .. protesting and boycotting. thats what they do best !
imran advocates peace talks because he is pro pakistan not pro taliban but ji and jui f are pro taliban. Punjab chief minster is on record pleading taliban not to attack punjab because they both have same ideology. Mark my words pti will be major power player as pti will form the next kpk government.
Utter shameful and depressing. We will negotiate with terrorists and barbarians. !!
And What about Thousands of Pakistanis killed by Taliban..??? Molana Sahab, They were also Muslims and Pakistanis and more Patriot than Taliban..... What about their Blood..???
@ Faheem.. As always boycotting and not participating
where are the liberal bashers of imran khan now...
Dejected to see that IK was not invited in this event this justifies his point that PTI is the biggest threat to status quo they all are gathered just to prevent it as he is the one who's been emphasizing on this strategy but no one didn't bother care about it.
Where is PTI?
The problem isn't talking to them. You talk on what basis? Say what to them? Taliban are not willing to leave their weapons and become a part of mainstream society. The only way talks will be successful if we accept all their demands, release prisoners, bring their rules and give them government. In turn they will bomb us even if one of these demands is not met. It's important to harm them so much that they are forced to negotiate that's why we can't immediately withdraw forces.
IF Taliban are serious in talks, why they haven't stopped bombing schools, killing policemen and polio workers, and threatening lives of innocent people? One cannot simply forget the smile Mr. Ehsanullah Ehsan and Mr. Adnan Rashid were passing during their press conference, in order to propose the Peace Talks. With that satirical smile, they were actually ridiculing the security apparatus of this country, if it has any. The helplessness of the common man and the criminal negligence (or deliberate overlooking) of the security establishment is so obvious, with detrimental consequences for the country.
How Wonderful, after loosing 35,000 Pakistanis our dearest and loving leaders are now calling APC to hold talks with Taliban....Why don't they wait for another 4-5 years....{Sarcastic}