Qaumi Watan Party’s stance: Sherpao denies Taliban presence in Karachi

Former minister claims parties use Taliban as pretext to promote military action.

PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) chief and former interior minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, said that there are no Taliban in Karachi and political parties are making this a pretext for political point-scoring.

His comments came after a truck laden with 150 kilogrammes of explosives blew up the Sachal Rangers complex in the financial capital, killing three personnel.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s central secretariat, Sherpao said that first the Awami National Party (ANP) used the Talibanisation argument and then the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) jumped on the bandwagon. Political parties want to launch military operations in Karachi with these false excuses, he said.

“Let me make it clear that the Pashtuns will suffer the worst from a military operation in Karachi or in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas,” he said.

He asked the government to work out a strategy after Nato withdraws its troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

“The government has no focus on the issue of militancy as it has no strategy for the post-2014 scenario in the region,” he said. He feared the post-withdrawal scenario would be devastating for Pashtuns if a strategy is not put in place. The present government stopped pursuing the peace policies he initiated as interior minister, he said.

“The Grand Pak-Afghan jirga had a positive impact on the region and it reduced anti-Pakistan sentiments in Afghanistan. Unfortunately this government did not implement the decisions taken in the jirga.”

He said that military operations are not a solution and that the government needed to take all the political parties and tribal elders into confidence before making decisions.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2012.