Peace process: Meeting with TTP team cancelled

Govt cites no official reason; Prof Ibrahim says he didn’t know about meeting in first place.

ISLAMABAD:

A scheduled meeting between the government and the Taliban intermediary committee could not take place on Saturday, highlighting the growing complexities in the fledgling peace process.

The ministry of interior was conspicuously silent about the meeting. Asked for comments over its cancellation, a senior ministry official said, “I don’t have any confirmation.”

Although there was no official word on why the meeting – called by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday – could not take place, at least one Taliban intermediary said he was never intimated about it.

“I was not directly informed that a meeting was scheduled for Saturday,” Prof Muhammad Ibrahim, member of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) intermediary committee, told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

“There were media reports about a meeting between [TTP intermediary Maulana Samiul Haq and the interior minister, but I was not aware of any such development,” he said.

Prof Ibrahim added, however, that a meeting between the government and TTP intermediaries is likely in the next few days.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the meeting was postponed as the government was devising its strategy in line with input from the Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS), which agreed to continue the ongoing talks with the Taliban.

Meanwhile, when asked about the extension of ceasefire by the TTP, Prof Ibrahim said, “We are trying to get the extension. The concerns of Taliban should be addressed [by the government] and we would ask them to maintain the ceasefire.”

He did not, however, spell out the concerns of the Taliban. The TTP had earlier accused the government of not responding positively to its demands.

About the release of 13 non-combatant prisoners as announced by the government during the first week of this month, Ibrahim said, “There is no information whether those prisoners have been released of not.”

Responding to a question about TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid’s recent statement that the TTP would not be responsible for attacks on public places, Ibrahim said: “The Taliban had actually said that they would not attack public places but some other forces could do so.”

“Therefore, the Taliban should not be held responsible for any such attacks.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2014.