Islamabad : The Pakistani government will have direct talks with the Taliban from next week to make the peace process result oriented, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said yesterday.
Winding up debate on the National Internal Security Policy in the National Assembly last night' Khan said the target is to start direct negotiations.
He said a new government negotiating team is being constituted for the second phase of the dialogue with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from next week. The Minister said the committee would contact the other side to make parameters of the dialogue absolutely clear so as to remove the misconception that talks are taking place at the cost of constitution or from a weaker position.
He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would chair a meeting of Chief Ministers in Islamabad next week to ensure coordination with them on implementation mechanism. The new proposals call for inclusion of representatives of the federal government, army and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government in the committee.
The inclusion of Taliban shura members in the Taliban committee has also been recommended. The focal person in this regard is most likely to be the Interior Minister. The current government committee includes Irfan Siddqui, retired Major Amir, Rustam Shah Mohmand and Rahimullah Yousufzai. The negotiators nominated by the TTP include Maulana Samiul Haq, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Professor Mohammad Ibrahim.
The recommendation for the formation of a new committee was made by Major Amir during a meeting of the current negotiators with Sharif.
The government on Tuesday decided to resume peace talks with the Taliban which was suspended last month after a TTP faction killed 23 detained Frontier Corps personnel.
The dialogue was launched to end the decade-long insurgency that has claimed some 40,000 lives.
