TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud presumed dead in US drone strike.
The government is determined to hold talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the sake of peace in the country and it would not let dialogue process be killed through drone attacks, information minister Pervaiz Rashid said on Saturday.
Mehsud’s death would not derail the process, he said terming the recent drone strike in North Waziristan as an attack on dialogue process.
“We can say that this time a drone struck the peace talks but we will not let the peace talks die,” Rashid told reporters.
The information minister said Pakistan has a clear stance on drone attacks but it was not considering suspension of NATO supplies.
“Halting NATO supplies is not a solution to every problem and difference with the US neither it has helped in the past after the Salala attack so we need to move forward with patience to sort out crucial matters,” he said.
The minister expressed hope that political parties would show patience and tolerance as demonstrated by the government for the dialogue.
To a question, Rashid said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in touch with his team and the military leadership to chart future course of action after Friday’s drone attack.
“We had no contact with Taliban, our team was to meet them on Saturday but it couldn’t happen unfortunately,” he said.
Drone attack ‘conspiracy’ against peace
Majority of the political leaders have termed Friday’s drone strike that killed TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud a conspiracy to sabotage peace talks with the militants.
Talking to media, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Munawar Hassan said drone strike would delay talks with the Taliban.
Opposition leader Khursheed Shah said attack came at a time when government officials were briefing about the dialogue process between government and Taliban, adding that the strike proved that Americans don not want peace talks to succeed.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2013.
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Lets call spade a spade!
There is no peace process, there never was. Its a shameless process that guarantees surrender of lives of common Pakistanis to terrorists but not peace!