Direct talks with TTP: Gulzar Khan to represent PTI on new committee

Though the army will have no direct role, a high-ranking officer will indirectly help government negotiators.

ISLAMABAD:

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday nominated Gulzar Khan for a reconfigured committee that will be tasked to hold dialogue with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. At the same time, a senior army officer will have indirect involvement in the process, Daily Express has learnt.

“Yes, the PTI has formally referred Gulzar Khan’s name for the committee,” a senior PTI official told The Express Tribune. He added that Imran’s party wanted to support the government over the issue.

Gulzar Khan was elected MNA from NA-4 in the May 2013 general elections. He is also chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education.

The development came a day after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan – who has been tasked by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to reconstitute the four-member committee – contacted Imran Khan and asked for nomination of his party’s representative for the new committee.

The four-member committee headed by Adviser to Prime Minister on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui has virtually been dissolved on the proposal of its own members.

The proposal for direct talks with the TTP was floated after the group announced a one-month ceasefire. Some reports suggest that the proposal came due to difference of opinion among government negotiators.

Army to help govt committee, indirectly

The interior minister said in a television interview that Pakistan Army would have no representation on the reconfigured committee. Source told Daily Express that a high-ranking military officer will be in contact with the new committee.

Sources said the army would make all-out efforts to make the dialogue process a success – but the political government would have to lead the negotiations.

They said secret information – about the TTP groups, which were really serious in pursuing dialogue and those who were using it as a delaying tactic – was vital for the success of the process. The army officer would play an important role in providing information to the committee, they added.

Sources said that there was a possibility that the negotiation process would be kept secret and the names of a few or all members of the team might not be made public.

Such backchannel talks had proved a success in the past and helped in persuading the TTP to announce a ceasefire, they said, adding that the government might use the strategy in the future.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2014.