Peace talks: Negotiations with the Taliban without army’s representation to fail, says Fazl

Taliban are ready to negotiate, says Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

MULTAN:

“The absence of army representatives in negotiations with the Taliban is part of a plan to launch a military operation,” Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference at Jamia Qari Hanfia in Multan, he said the peace talks would fail if the army was not included directly.

“The Taliban are ready to negotiate.” Rehman said he had advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to include army in the peace talks by any means necessary.

“The issue with the peace talks is that on one side, there are non-state actors according to our military establishment.

On the other side, there are non-state representatives of the federation… they have no concern, direct or indirect, with the outcome of the negotiations.”

The JUI-F chief said the government had not started the talks on a positive note by using terms like ‘militants’ to refer to the Taliban.

“This will never bring the people of Pakistan together… it will only breed more hatred.”

Rehman said “same state actors” were causing hindrance in peace dialogue as far as the issue of Kashmir was concerned.

“The Kashmir issue is still unresolved as a result of involvement of state establishments which are more powerful than the federations on both sides.

These establishments, on both sides, do not want a political settlement of the Kashmir issue,” he said.

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief said the time was right for the two governments to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

“If the present government does not take measures to resolve it, the issue might never be resolved,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2014.