Summary PM will preside the meeting and give guidelines to the dialogue team.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The first meeting of a four-member committee constituted to hold talks with the Taliban will meet at the Prime Minister House on Friday.
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will preside the meeting and give guidelines to the dialogue team.
During his National Assembly address on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sharif said peace should be given another chance as he announced the formation of a four-member committee to carry out the dialogue process with the Taliban.
Earlier, Irfan Siddiqui, member of four-member committee formed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to negotiate with Taliban, said that Taliban have accepted government’s committee and it would be better if Taliban also reciprocated by forming a similar committee.
Siddiqui also said that the first mandate of the committee is to formally initiate contact with Taliban. Contact information of committee members will be published in newspaper advertisements in this regard in a few days.
Irfan Siddiqui said that doors of the past have to be closed and that the committee doesn’t want to get into ‘ifs and buts’. He further said that Taliban has to give verbal or practical assurance that no unpleasant incident will take place during the negotiations process.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended National Assembly’s session today and said that the government wants to give peace another chance and that peace negotiations with Taliban will be reinitiated.
Taliban had welcomed the offer and expressed confidence over the four-member committee. Opposition leader Khursheed Shah and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan also assured support.
The committee comprises Irfan Siddique (PM’s Advisor on National Affairs), Major (r) Aamir, Rahimullah Yousafzai (journalist) and Rustam Shah Mohmand (former Ambassador to Afghanistan).
