Game of thrones: For PPP, supporting talks with Taliban is swallowing a bitter pill

Shah says CII is a constitutional organ but some of its points need to be debated in parliament.

SUKKUR:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is not ready to bow before the Taliban but it is ready to swallow this “bitter pill” and support the goverment’s talks, said the leader of the opposition in National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, on Wednesday.

He was talking to the media after addressing a gathering of the PPP women’s wing to commemorate Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s death anniversary, in Rohri town hall. “We have assured Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of our party’s support for the peace talks with the Taliban,” he said. “If people’s expectations are not fulfilled in the peace talks, then it would be hazardous for the country.”

He also commented on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s statement on the presence of a ‘death squad’ in Karachi. “They [MQM] are our brothers and they should keep issuing such statements for survival,” he said.

Dismissing the rumours of security threats for the party’s April 4 gathering, Shah said they are neither afraid of attacks, nor of being killed.

Shah said the Council of Islamic Ideology is a constitutional organ but some of its points need to be debated in parliament.

After hearing Shah’s 35-minute-long speech on women’s rights, the jiyalas found it hard to implement his teachings - they pushed and shoved the women as they made their way to the biryani served nearby.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2014.