ISLAMABAD: The PPP expressed concern on Monday over release of Taliban prisoners under what it called undisclosed assurances and urged the government to keep the army on board during talks with the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
The assertion appears to be an expression of no confidence in the official claim that the government and military leadership are on the same page on the dialogue.
Senior PPP leaders were of the opinion that the current government-TTP talks would not reach a logical conclusion.
Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Ahmed Shah told reporters outside the Parliament House that Taliban were not releasing innocent people, but the government was freeing terrorists as a result of dialogue with the TTP.
“If Taliban do not release sons of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, the PPP will be justified to question the dialogue process,” he said.
The government recently announced that it had released 19 TTP prisoners last month and there are reports that some more will be set free soon.
“Taliban have made the army a party in the peace process and, therefore, the government should take the military leadership into confidence. Otherwise, any misunderstanding will be harmful for the democratic system,” the opposition leader said.
He suggested that the government should make its committee holding direct talks with Taliban more powerful so that it could take decisions on the spot instead of going to the prime minister and the interior minister again and again to seek instructions.
He said PPP Patron-in-Chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari wanted that talks should be held on the basis of equality and the government should not be blackmailed by the Taliban.
In reply to a question about former president retied Gen Pervez Musharraf, Mr Shah said his case would be similar to that of US spy Ramond Davis. “Musharraf had facilitated Nawaz Sharif and thus the latter will do the same,” he added.
Another PPP leader and former interior minister Rehman Malik told reporters that release of terrorists in response to Taliban’s assurance of freeing innocent people was ‘illogical’. “It seems that Taliban want to get a group of 1,000 terrorists released and send them on a secret mission.”
He warned the government to be wary of Taliban and keep in mind the integrity and stability of the country.
The PPP’s legal wizard and former federal minister, Aitzaz Ahsan, said in a statement that there was no hope of success in government-TTP talks, adding that Taliban should free non-combatants and innocent people, including sons of Mr Gilani and Salman Taseer.
TTP PRISONERS: Rustam Shah Mohmand, a member of the government committee, claimed that the government had agreed to release TTP prisoners in phases. He said both the government and TTP had prisoners in their custody, but their number was uncertain. The issue would be taken up at the next meeting between the government and Taliban committees, he added.