Preparing an olive branch: Panel of prominent figures to hold Taliban talks, Fazl

JUI-F chief says negotiations will start within a month’s time.

ISLAMABAD:

Commending the government’s willingness to engage the Pakistani Taliban in talks, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that a forum for such talks would soon be up and running.

He said this while talking to journalists after the National Assembly session on Friday.

Fazl hoped the forum would start negotiations with the Taliban in a month’s time.

“The government has included talks with Taliban in its priorities and a forum of political and other influential personalities will soon start negotiations,” said Fazl.

The panel will first decide and suggest Taliban groups that the government needed to engage with.

“The forum will mark the goalpost and determine conditions under which dialogue will move forward,” JUI-F spokesperson Jan Achakzai told The Express Tribune.

Quoting Fazl, he said the government will soon call a mini All Parties’ Conference where leadership of all political parties and defence authorities will be invited.



“It is to ascertain that all parties are on the same page, particularly defence authorities who must be 100 percent behind the talks,” said Achakzai.

Fazl said it was high time that the government sent a message to Taliban that it was serious about negotiations.

“This would eliminate the trust deficit in Taliban’s minds,” said the JUI-F chief.

Fazl had earlier offered his help to the government in holding negotiations with the Taliban. Achakzai said the JUI-F would not directly mediate between the government and the Taliban and would only provide help in forming the forum that would hold the talks.

The spokesman added that it was too early to say which groups of Taliban will be engaged first.

PTI’s govt in K-P

Talking about Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the JUI-F chief said the provincial government was merely a matter of few months.

Replying to a question, Fazl said his party will not need to move a no-confidence motion in the provincial assembly, adding “the PTI government’s inability and inefficiency will destroy itself.”

However, the JUI-F chief said Pakistan would be in danger if the K-P government remained in PTI’s hands for more than two months.

“K-P will be in danger of separation from Pakistan if PTI continued to rule,” Fazl claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2013.