Daily Times

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday nominated former Senator Farhatullah Babar to the reconciliatory jirga proposed by the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) for negotiations with state institutions.

The nomination was made after a telephonic conversation between PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen and the PPP chairman earlier in the day.

A statement issued by the PPP said that the party believed in peaceful resolution of all issues through dialogue and negotiations. Bilawal, who is in the city hold talks with party leaders on allotment of tickets for the upcoming election, was quoted as saying that he was happy to nominate Farhatullah Babar to the PTM reconciliatory jirga.

Earlier, a list comprising 30 names was handed over by the PTM to the head of the jirga, MNA Shah Ji Gul Afridi.

PTM leader Mohsin Dawar told media that the name of the central leader, Manzoor Pashteen, was not added to the list as a matter of policy.

Besides the names of PTM activists, the list contains names from the Awami National Party, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), and the Awami Workers Party.

Bushra Gohar and Afrasiab Khattak represent the ANP, Usman Kakar the PkMAP and Ismat Shahjahan and Fanoos Gujjar the AWP. It also contains the name of Advocate Fazal, who is leading the campaign of parents who lost their children in the attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School in 2014.

PTM activists in the list are Ali Wazir, Mohsin Dawar, Nawab Ayaz, Ghulam Qadir, Lateef Afridi, Sher Mohammad advocate, Raza Muhammad Raza, Saleem Advocate, Abdullah Nangyal, Amin Wazir, Syed Alam Mehsud, Nisar Mohmand, Ahmad Abbas Aurakzai, Khan Zaman Kakar, Noor Hameed, Ulas Yar, Sana Ijaz, Liaquat Yusafzai, Prof Ijaz, Hashim Mandokhel, Sher Mehsud, Shah Faisal, Allauddin and Gul Marjan.

In its last public gathering in Karachi, PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen had demanded the formation of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate all aspects of the country’s war on terror and to address all issues facing Pashtun citizens of the country.

Published in Daily Times, May 29^th 2018.