ISLAMABAD
The federal government on Wednesday announced a new four-member committee which would hold direct talks with the banned terror outfit, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), following a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
The body consists of serving bureaucrats. The four-member committee would be headed by Federal Secretary for Ports and Shipping Habibullah Khan Khattak while FATA Additional Secretary Arbab Arif and Prime Minister’s Secretariat Additional Secretary Fawad Hasan Fawad would assist him. Former envoy Rustam Shah Mohmand has retained his place in the committee and he would represent the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as well as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government.
Sources told Pakistan Today that it was decided that the body would include only bureaucrats because no politician wanted to head the committee, fearing backlash of failure in talks.
Before leaking the names of the new committee to the media, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the residence of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and took him into confidence on the committee’s formation. Nawaz had invited the PTI chief to Raiwind last week however Imran refused to visit Raiwind and invited the premier to visit his Bani Gala residence instead.
“Imran and his aides welcomed PM and body language of both the leaders was very good,” he said, adding that Khan had arranged hi-tea for the premier which included Nawaz’s favourite dishes such as dahi bhallay, fruit chaat, prawns and finger fish.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Irfan Siddiqui accompanied the PM while Imran Khan was flanked by PTI President Javed Hashmi, Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Secretary General Jehangir Tareen, Information Secretary Shireen Mazari and Naeemul Haq.
“During the hour-long meeting, Nawaz briefed the PTI leaders on the security situation while the interior minister briefed them on the talks progress. The PM assured them that the army was also on board the strategy,” a source said.
“During the meeting, Nawaz formally asked to withdraw its previous nomination of Gulzar Khan and rather recommend Rustam Shah Mohmand or any other bureaucrat for inclusion in dialogue committee,” a PTI leader said, requesting anonymity. He quoted Nawaz as saying that the committee would be empowered to take decisions.
“The committee would be reporting to the interior minister. Nawaz has asked Nisar to keep Imran in loop while he would also be briefing the PM on a daily basis on the talks,” he added.
“Nisar has a cordial relationship with General Raheel Sharif and he would also keep the chief of army staff on board over the dialogue process,” sources added.
They said that some advisors of the PM had proposed that the committee should be headed by a politician, however, the matter had been discussed at length and Nawaz agreed with Nisar to make a federal secretary the committee head.
“The decision to name a serving bureaucrat was taken in the light of the TTP reservations regarding media hype created by the former committee members,” the source said, adding that Gulzar Khan, the nominee of KP government, a retired bureaucrat and a current MPA, was forwarded but since all other members are serving bureaucrats the PTI chief was asked to name a serving secretary or forward Mohmand’s name. The PTI chief favoured Mohmand’s name.
He said that it had been decided that the dialogue process would be kept under wraps and no media leaks would be allowed.
“There was realisation that it was imperative not only to isolate those unwilling to talk, but also those actively seeking to sabotage the dialogue process. Both the sides agreed that such failure would result in greater polarization and terrorism within the country,” said PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari.
Pervez Khattak also gave a brief overview of the law and order situation in KP.
Imran said that dialogue required a formalised structure to identify which groups were actually participating in the process, adding that the utmost concern should be for the safety of over 600,000 residents of North Waziristan “if the last resort of a military operation becomes a necessity”.
Both sides recognised the importance of the media in making peace talks a success.
“As the dialogue proceeds, PTI chief feared the saboteurs would also become more active. The PTI leaders suggested that Taliban should be told to give assurance for the safety of the polio health workers and the continuation of the anti polio campaign,” the PTI secretary information said.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said that Nawaz had told Imran that he was striving to establish peace without shedding a drop of blood. “For this purpose, we are taking forward the dialogue process with full resolve and sincerity,” Rashid quoted the premier as saying. He added that the government and Taliban committees had in a short period of one month achieved what could not be done during the last several years.
SAMI WELCOMES:
Later, the TTP committee led by Samiul Haq met Chaudhry Nisar and welcomed the government’s decision to form the committee.
During the meeting, it was decided that the TTP committee would visit North Waziristan on Thursday (today) to seek guidelines from TTP Shura over the talks. Nisar assured the committee to provide them a helicopter for their visit. A member of the government’s committee may also accompany the TTP committee.