Pakistan still hopes for peace

DESPITE initial setbacks, patient back-channeling efforts obviously have succeeded since both the Pakistani government and the Tehreek-e-Taleban (TTP) expressed their willingness to hold direct peace talks.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that a new government panel for direct peace negotiations with the TTP would be announced in a few days.
The Taleban has already extended invitation to the government for a face-to-face meeting with the Taleban leaders in northwest tribal region to discuss formal dialogue, a Taleban mediator, Prof. Muhammad Ibrahim, said on Wednesday.
Ibrahim, who traveled to Waziristan late last month and met members of the Taleban political council, said he was hopeful the talks would finally move forward. The Taleban has proposed that South Waziristan, their birthplace, would be the venue for the formal talks. There have been ups and downs in the complicated peace talks but neither sides want a total collapse.
At one stage the government team refused to talk with the Taleban mediators after the Taleban executed 23 security personnel who had been held hostage since 2010, and after they bombed a police bus, killing 13 police officers.
The impasse ended after the Taleban unilaterally declared a month-long cease-fire on March 1. In response, the government ordered suspension of air strikes against the Taleban in Waziristan.
A team of government negotiators started talks with the Taleban intermediaries last month to end the longstanding conflict, which has claimed thousands of lives and badly affected the county’s economy. Officials said that since the Taleban has declared a cease-fire without conditions, it is now time for direct talks to start.
The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has now adopted a new strategy to give a befitting response to the Taleban and target them in their bases if they carry out attack on security forces. Sharif has also made it clear that the “use of force” would be the option if the current chance of peace dialogue could not work.
Pakistani security establishment is now determined to secure all tribal regions bordering Afghanistan to avoid instability after the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan at the end of this year.

- Courtesy: Xinuha