LAHORE: Two major opposition parties — Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan for announcing an amnesty to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and called on the government to take the parliament into confidence.
PM Imran in an interview to a Turkish TV channel earlier this month announced an amnesty scheme to certain TTP groups if they gave up their arms. The PM had shared that the talks were taking place in Afghanistan and that the Afghan Taliban was assisting Pakistan.
“What political solutions he [Imran Khan] wishes to undertake with what they call the ‘good Taliban’?” asked PPP Senator Sherry Rehman in a statement. She demanded the government to clarify the statement as that puts into question the mass sacrifice made by civilians and soldiers.
The PPP vice president observed that foreign and security policy was now routinely subjected to unilateral and clashing pronouncements by cabinet members. This has exposed the country at home and international forums, she believes.
The senior PPP leader, who is also the chairperson of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, regretted that one minister suggested that the TTP was hand in gloves with terrorist groups nurtured by India, while another said that the government could perhaps disarm and rehabilitate them if they renounced violence.
“The prime minister himself disclosed changes in Pakistan’s policy vis-a-vis TTP on a foreign TV channel, instead of the parliament,” said the senator.
The PPP leader was of the view that if geostrategic alignments and their politics were now driving the multilateral policy of Pakistan, then the parliament needed to be briefed.
On the other hand, PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui, in his statement, said it was “unfair” to keep negotiations with the TTP secret. Offering an amnesty to the TTP without taking into nation and parliament in confidence has raised many questions, said the PML-N leader.
Siddiqui maintained that Pakistan had already paid a heavy price for this type of secret negotiations previously.
Negotiation’s counter-productive: analyst
Director Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS) Amir Rana told Bol News that engaging in peace talks with the Taliban is counterproductive at a time when Pakistan has been telling the world that terrorist outfits like the TTP are becoming weak day by day.
“Such offers [of negotiation by the government] will encourage the terrorists, which will not be a good indication at all,” Rana said.
The analyst noted that without developing consensus with the political parties chances of successful negotiations with the TTP are “mild”. He also agreed that the matter should have to be brought before parliament.
Rana believes that Pakistan should strike a deal with the Afghan Taliban similar to the one US signed in Doha. He added that the Doha accords bounded the Taliban not to hit Western interests in Afghanistan.
