Talks with TTP: Parliament should take decision: PPP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party, the major coalition partner in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government, on Saturday, emphasized that the Parliament should take decisions with regard to the ongoing peace talks with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

A meeting of the senior party leaders, chaired by party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari which was also attended by the PPP’s ministers, deliberated upon the recent development in the wake of the peace talks with the TTP in Kabul, moderated by the Afghan Taliban’s interim government.

Foreign Minister and party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also attended the meeting via video link, as he has been in quarantine following his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock tested positive for coronavirus soon after their recent meeting in Islamabad.

According to a statement issued by the party’s secretary-general Farhatullah Babar, the meeting reiterated the party’s position that all decisions must be taken by the parliament and “thus, the parliament must be taken on board.” Babar said that the party also decided to reach out to allied parties to create a consensus on the way forward with regard to the talks with the TTP.

The meeting which was held here at the Zardari House discussed in depth the issue of terrorism, particularly in the light of recent developments in Afghanistan with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanis-tan (TTA) and the TTP. Party sources said that the party’s former member National Assembly from Bajaur Akhunzada Chattan who was also a member of the tribal delegation which held talks with the TTP leadership in Kabul recently briefed the party leaders about the talks with the TTP and the demands put forward by the group.

They said that the party leaders expressed concerns over certain demands of the TTP and declared that any demand which is in contradiction with the Constitution of Pakistan could not be met and they decided that the matter should be taken to the parliament for a thorough debate.

The meeting was attended among others by two former prime ministers, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf who is also the current Speaker National Assembly, Faryal Talpur, Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah, Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Shah, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman, and other senior leaders including Nayyer Bukhari, Najmuddin Khan, President PPP Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, Humayun Khan, Chaudhry Yasin, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Chaudhry Manzoor, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Akhunzada Chattan, Rukhsana Bangash, Nisar Khuhro, and Farhatullah Babar.

The government of Pakistan had sent a 50-member delegation comprising tribal elders from 13 districts and some sitting and former parliamentarians from the merged tribal districts to Kabul on May 31, 2022.

The members of the tribal Jirga held several rounds of talks with the TTP negotiating team for three to four days in Kabul and agreed to extend the ceasefire till the talks are under way. The talks were directly moderated and supervised by interim Interior Minister of Afghanistan Sirajuddin Haqqani who is also chief of the Haqqani Network, as well as by the Afghan intelligence chief Abdul Haq Wasiq.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022