ISLAMABAD: With the government exploring options for reconstituting the four-member team tasked with negotiating with the Taliban, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has expressed its willingness to be a part of the process to make it effective and result-oriented.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who has started reaching out to mainstream political parties for their opinion, held a detailed discussion on the subject with PTI chief Imran Khan yesterday, it was revealed.
While details of the conversation between the two have not been divulged, PTI sources said that the PTI chairman had agreed to have its representative in a reconstituted negotiation committee.
Commenting on the issue, senior PTI leader, Dr Arif Alvi said, “We want the government to be on strong footing, it should not take any step in haste or under some pressure.”
Alvi said that his party chief had taken the initiative and resumed contacts with the government over the issue. In this regard Imran Khan had also discussed the matter with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he added.
“Our position is that there should be action against those who do not want to talk and are not observing the ceasefire,” he added.
Responding to a question, Alvi said that the government’s committee must be “powerful” and it must have the “army’s support and information all the time.”
He said that the government should keep Chief Minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Pervaiz Khattak in the loop during the negotiation process and repeated that a PTI representative, Rustam Shah Mohmand, was already a part of the previous four-member committee announced by the Prime Minister.
INTERNEWS
