Government under scrutiny: Senator Rabbani wants clarity on peace talks

Proposes daily briefing to all-parties parliamentary panel on dialogue.

ISLAMABAD:

In true opposition style, Senator Raza Rabbani on Tuesday demanded that the government share a more streamlined roadmap for peace talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Speaking in the upper house of parliament, the PPP leader said that he and his party needed clarification from the government on the proposed peace talks with the TTP.

“We have already said that we would support the government if it can restore peace in the country. The talks should be held within the ambit of the Constitution,” he added.

The government should apprise the parliament of the parameters of the talks, he added. “These should not be in the ‘open air’ or with ‘the sky is the limit’ [approach],” he continued.



When the TTP refused to talk a few months back, the PPP senator said the government had said it would be talking to other groups. “What about other groups now. Who are they?” he questioned.

The head of the Taliban intermediary committee, Maulana Samiul Haq, has stated that there was a ‘presumption’ that other militant groups also came under the TTP. “What will be the status of negotiations if this presumption is proved wrong?” he asked.

Rabbani also asked the government to clarify the status of talks if militants continue targeting civilians and armed forces.

He also expressed apprehensions over a reported statement of a Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa minister, in which he had said that the provincial government would allow the TTP to open a ‘political office’.

The senator demanded the government make public the terms of reference of the proposed talks, give a timeframe and take parliament into confidence through an in-camera session.

He proposed that an all-parties parliamentary committee be formed, which should be given a daily briefing by government representatives in the talks committee.

In the general debate on law and order, Rabbani also accused the government of abdicating its responsibilities to curb lawlessness in the country.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2014.