Senate panel asks government to hold talks with Taliban groups

As Afghan Taliban have announced to open its office in Qatar for holding talks with United States, the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday asked the government of Pakistan to also initiate peace talks with Taliban groups in the country. The committee met here at the parliament with Senator Salim Saifullah Khan in the chair.
High officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefed the committee. Talking to reporters after the meeting, the chairman of the panel said Afghan Taliban have opened office in Qatar for peace talks with the US hence Pakistan should also initiate dialogue with them. He said that various Taliban organisations were also in contact with Pakistan to resolve the conflict through dialogue.
He said that the panel asked the government not to allow any foreign country for using the country's air-bases without permission of the parliament. "It would be parliament whether or not to allow any other foreign country to use Pakistan's air-base", he added. He made it clear that Pakistan's future relation and co-operation with United States and Nato would be decided by the joint session of the parliament.
He said that Parliamentary Committee on National Security would present its recommendations to the joint sitting of the parliament. He said that Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar briefed the committee on the recommendations complied by the recently held Pakistan's envoys conference following the deadliest Nato attack on Salala border posts on May 26 killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.
He appreciated the government for summoning envoys from the important world capitals, saying that consultations on important issues were a good tradition. He further said that the panel also asked the government to have relations with India on equal basis and also to hold dialogue with New Delhi on all contentious issues.
He said that secretary commerce also briefed the panel on the government move to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India. He said that the committee was in favour of trade with India, saying that it would help improving the life standard of the people of both the two countries. He further said that war was in no country interest and all the disputes with India should be resolved through peaceful dialogue.
About the relation with Afghanistan, he said that the Foreign Minister briefed the panel on the current status of the mutual relations between the two countries. Salim Saifullah Khan said that the mutual relations of the two countries were not good following assassination of former Afghan president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani.
He, however, noted that Islamabad's relation with Kabul were very important. He said that dialogue should be initiated with Afghanistan at all levels and steps should be taken for exchange of parliamentary delegations between the two countries. He further said that secretary of commerce has also been asked to visit Kabul for increasing trade ties between the two countries.