Imran urges Nawaz not to let US drone Taliban talks

• Khan wants talks under constitutional ambits, demands timeline once talks commence

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to demand of the US government an end to drone attacks to safeguard peace talks with Taliban.

The cricketer-turned-politician stressed Nawaz to ensure that the dialogue process between the government and banned nominees is not ‘droned’ as happened last time when Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a drone strike.

“With PTI’s commitment to giving peace a chance in Pakistan, we appreciate the institution of a meaningful structured dialogue for the first time by the federal government. President Obama, in his State of the Union address on January 28, admitted, for the first time, the negative impact of drones on people,” said Imran.

“PTI feels the prime minister will get a more receptive ear in Washington if he strongly demanded an end to drones so that peace talks are not disrupted,” he added.

Khan said that once the talks commence, the government should fix a timeline for talks so that results could be achieved. “Time is the essence as powerful vested interests and anti-Pakistan elements will be looking to sabotage the process,” he said.

He said the greatest advantage of this dialogue will be that the major stakeholders in peace in FATA – the tribal people – would now isolate the saboteurs of this process and strengthen the potential for peace.

The PTI chief said that talks must be held within the parameters of the constitution to make the dialogue meaningful.

“As soon as the talks commence, there must be a ceasefire from both sides, especially an end to terror attacks during duration of the talks. Moreover, the talks must be open and transparent so that we get to know about their progress, impediments and saboteurs.”