Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday constituted a three-member committee to engage with other political parties for bringing up the issue of talks with the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Parliament. A press release issued Sunday afternoon said PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari named the members of the committee. They include Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman and Farhatullah Babar. Notably, the PPP held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue of terrorism in the country particularly in the light of recent developments in Afghanistan involving Tehreek Taliban Afghanistan (TTA) and the banned TTP. After an in-depth discussion on the issue, the PPP reiterated its position that the parliament alone was the best forum for a conversation on the issue, says a news report.

Earlier this month, the TTP agreed on an indefinite ceasefire with Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban brokered peace talks between both parties. However, the matter did not land in the Parliament and the development happened surreptitiously. But, PPP had taken a strong exception to it in its yesterday’s meeting. Addressing a public rally in Peshawar in December 2021 when the PTI government was in power in the center, FM Bilawal had termed the talks with the TTP as betraying martyrs and demanded punishment for the terrorists involved in killing civilians including the children of Army Public School (APS) and security personnel before any dialogue with them. At that moment, he had also pointed out that the government did not have the mandate of the Parliament for talks with the proscribed group.