ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to dissolve its negotiating committee tasked with holding peace talks with the Taleban. Sources said that a new committee will be constituted in the coming days, adding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will supervise the committee while Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan will be its focal person.

Sources also say that new committee will include members from the federal government, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government including a representative of the governor of the province.

Additionally the committee will include members from the country’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The new committee will be tasked with holding talks directly with the Taleban.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan committee and Taleban insurgents called on Thursday for higher-level talks between the two sides following a breakfast meeting hosted by the prime minister.

Dialogue aimed at ending the militants’ 7-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives resumed on Wednesday following a two-week suspension after terrorists killed 23 kidnapped soldiers.

The military retaliated with a series of airstrikes that it said killed more than 100 militants, and the Taleban last weekend announced a month-long cease-fire.

But negotiations have so far been conducted through teams of go-betweens, which some observers say has hampered their effectiveness.

“We have asked the prime minister to replace this committee with an effective forum,” said government chief negotiator Irfan Siddiqui after Thursday’s meeting.

“We believe that in the next phase, sensitive issues and demands will come up and we need to have a mechanism for direct contacts.”

Rahimullah Yusufzai, another government negotiator, told AFP: “We have proposed that those who have authority to make decisions should be part of this committee. There should be representatives from the government and the military in the committee.”

On the Taleban side, chief negotiator Maulana Sami-ul-Haq said his team was “satisfied with the round of talks this morning with the prime minister.”

“It was decided in the meeting that now the time has come to strengthen the committees and empower them more,” he added.

Haq said his team might have to return to the Taleban’s base in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan in a day or two to report back to their leadership.

Observers have criticized the dialogue process for being a step removed from the real decision-makers, but analyst Imtiaz Gul said face-to-face contacts risked giving respectability to a banned militant outfit.

“It is a legitimate demand to have direct TTP representation in talks. However if that happens and the government representatives are sitting across the table, this could amount to lending legitimacy to an organization which the government has proscribed as a terrorist outfit,” he told AFP.

The Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) is the umbrella movement for the militants.

A statement issued by Sharif’s office said he was committed to peace.

“As prime minister it is my constitutional, religious, national, moral and human duty to stop the continuation of fire and blood and give peace to the country and citizens,” it said.

The peace talks, which began in February, were a key campaign pledge for Sharif before he was elected to office for a third time last year.

But many analysts are skeptical about their chances for success, given the Taleban’s demands for nationwide sharia law and a withdrawal of troops from the lawless tribal zones.

Many regional deals between the military and the Taleban have failed in the past.