Govt to explore alternatives to talks

“Some positive outcome has to be achieved sooner than later because time is running out,” says an official.

ISLAMABAD:

The government has decided that the fragile peace talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) will not be ‘open ended’ and alternatives would be explored to deal with militancy if the process fails to achieve the desired results soon, officials said on Sunday.

The decision was taken during the recent meeting of the National Security Committee, which agreed to give peace a chance despite TTP’s announcement to call off their 40-day ceasefire.

A senior official told The Express Tribune that the civil and military leadership would pursue talks with a condition that the process would now have certain timelines. “Some positive outcome has to be achieved sooner than later because time is running out,” said the official while requesting anonymity.

Another official said the security establishment, which believes that the militants are simply buying time, suggested the civilian authorities do not allow the dialogue process linger on beyond certain point.

The army is said to have told the government that prolonged talks would only benefit the TTP and limit the state’s options.

“It appears that the militants want to remain engaged with the dialogue process till the drawdown of foreign forces from Afghanistan,” said a security official. “They [militants] feel if they can stretch the talks that far it will certainly make it difficult for the government to launch a meaningful operation against them,” he argued.

He said that in an effort to preempt TTP’s strategy, the ongoing talks would have to be ‘time barred’.

The Express Tribune has learnt that the government would push for certain ‘timelines’ for the progress when Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who is spearheading the peace efforts, meets Taliban intermediaries sometime this week.

The Taliban intermediaries were supposed to meet the government negotiators and Chaudhry Nisar on Saturday but the meeting could not take place due to the minister’s preoccupation with other matters.

“Hopefully, we will meet this week,” said Maulana Yousaf Shah, who is a member of the Taliban intermediary committee. Asked about the prospects of talks, Shah said the situation would become clear only after the meeting between the two committees.

Another Taliban intermediary Prof Muhammad Ibrahim said he and his colleagues were likely to meet the government negotiators in the next two or three days. The talks will resume from where they were left, he told a gathering in Peshawar.

Prof Ibrahim admitted that the dialogue process was facing hurdles from both sides [govt and Taliban] and that the intermediaries were also facing problems in getting in touch with the Taliban. He welcomed the TTP announcement of not attacking public places. At the same time he appealed to the Taliban not to attack army and other government organisations.

“War is not a solution to any problem,” Prof Ibrahim said and called upon the army to support the quest for peace. “Even if the [current] talks fail, it is necessary to pursue talks,” he said. “We’ll go to the last limit for the sake of peace in the country.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2014.