Reconciliation process: Government gives banned outfits another chance

Rehman Malik says several entities ready to sit and talk with Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD:

The interior minister said on Monday that banned organisations would be delisted if they “closed down their militant wings”.

Pakistan has banned more than 30 militant outfits, including al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

“If the proscribed organisations assure us that they have closed down their militant wings and abandoned extremism, then we would like to meet them in next few days,” Rehman Malik told reporters.

“We have been contacted by several banned organisations that want to sit and talk. If they want to give up militancy we will talk to them as we are revising the list of proscribed organisations,” Malik said.

He did not identify any group but said that the government had “even offered the Taliban to give up militancy and join the federation”.

‘Mehrangate’ scandal

Interior Minister Malik said he had ‘solid proof’ in the Mehrangate scandal and is ready to take it to the Supreme Court.

Talking to the media outside the parliament, he said that the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) should also go to the Supreme Court to prove that it is not guilty in the Mehrangate’ scandal.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2012.