Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. PHOTO FILE
Addressing press officials in Islamabad, the interior minister said that the decision of holding talks with the Taliban was a "home-made" decision and was free of any "foreign pressure, intervention or influence".
Saying that the first meeting with the Taliban will determine demands from both sides, he said that the decisions facing them immediately included the time and place of the meeting.
Speaking about the All Parties Conferences (APC) held on September 9, he said, "the APC this time around was different than the others because it enabled the political parties to come to a unanimous resolution about important issues."
Asserting that every political party which attended believed that dialogue was the only way to move forward, he said that a lot of homework had gone into holding the conference successfully.
He said that a number of political party members had to cancel their personal trips while a few came to Pakistan especially for attending the APC.
"Before 2004, there were no suicide attacks in Pakistan. It was when a military dictator allowed Pakistan Army in tribal areas that the problem emerged," he said, adding that people have to come to terms with these realities.
The Interior minister said that it was easy for him to threaten militants or antagonist forces, but he said that he wanted to speak like the representative of Pakistan and not in his personal capacity.
"We are a nuclear state. We have been fighting this war for over 12 years. We have to get Pakistan out of this bloodshed," he said.
COMMENTS (4)
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Bravo!!! Only a popular government, with heavy mandate & securing highest-ever votes of 15 million in the history of Pakistan, could achieve this gigantic task!
@Imtiaz khan: Read "in the line of Fire" by the dictator and you will know the reasons for sending the army in.I f surrender to Talban is the beat option, then Parliament should declare that. ,and don't talk about sovereignty when Drones strike.
Contrary to what Ch Nisar says, the text of the APC resolution shows that they did very little homework. Here is a list of questions the APC completely failed to address
Good work APC. He is right to say that a dictator sent forces to FATA in 2004... I am happy to see finally that government is serious in solving problems of Pakistani people!