A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member Asad Umar has said that party Chairman Imran Khan’s recent statement regarding Pakistani Taliban was not an official PTI policy statement.
Speaking at a conference, Umar said the idea for establishing an office for peace talks with the Taliban reflected the personal views of the PTI chairman.
Asad said it was wrong to criticise those who wished to use peace talks as a way to fight terrorism in the country and come to terms with the terrorists.
“However, peace talks go hand in hand with cooperation from the other side and insisting on peace talks if the terror attacks continued would be a weakness,” he said, “besides being unfair to the country.”
Earlier, Imran had stated that it was imperative to have a political office for the Taliban where peace talks between the government and the Taliban could be held. He insisted that the absence of such an office would hinder negotiations and assist in the continuation of the decade-long war against terror.
He also referred to the Afghan Taliban office in Qatar officiated by the United States government to facilitate the dialogue process and stressed that the government take negotiations seriously.