Politicians still support talks with Taliban ‘Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath’ on Thursday

The News 21 Sept 2013 KARACHI: Speaking in his programme ‘Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath’ on Thursday, Kamran Khan said that all the political leaders say that they are still in favour of talks with the Taliban and that the recent developments have not made them move away from the path of talks. In the meantime, there are reports that undisclosed channels between the government and the Taliban have already been established and that the ice is melting. However, the government is neither confirming nor denying these reports. Kamran Khan said that according to some other reports, a former PML-N MNA belonging to Kohat, Javed Paracha, is one of the people who have been acting as the go-between in talks with the Taliban. It is being said that Javed Paracha has spoken to the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, Hakimullah Mahsud, and that Mahsud has told Paracha that the Taliban would like to see as a first step that the prisoners belonging to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Tehrik-e-Taliban, etc, are released from prisons. Javed Ibrahim Paracha has also contacted the federal interior minister in this connection. However, the government has neither confirmed nor denied these reports. Commenting on the operation in Karachi, Kamran Khan said that the situation in the city is getting better, and the law-enforcement agencies are appearing to be in total command. The system of information exchange that was put in place among the federal intelligence agencies, the Rangers and the police is getting formidable by virtue of which the overall situation in Karachi is improving. He said that according to Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the objectives of the first phase of Karachi operation have almost been achieved after which comes the second and third phases of the operation in which target killers and other criminals in Karachi will be wiped out. According to reports of the federal agencies, around 250 target killers have left Karachi for North Waziristan. Commenting on the Wali Khan Babar murder case, Kamran Khan said that when Geo News reporter Wali Khan Babar was murdered he had been investigating into the matters relating to politics-crime nexus. Investigation into his murder case could not progress, and all the police witnesses in the case were murdered too. The trial of the accused is on. Kamran Khan said that the police had assumed that the case was hushed up, but the matter has resurfaced at the Supreme Court. During the Karachi lawlessness case the Supreme Court, while taking notice of the case, ordered that a report on the failure to arrest the murderers of the witnesses in Wali Babar murder case be presented and that the IG of Sindh should arrest the murderers of those witnesses. In a different segment of the programme, Kamran Khan said that there have been complaints against the ruling party and its ministers that they are taking the Parliament for granted and that is why many legislators of the PML-N skip the sessions of the National Assembly and Senate. The other legislators are complaining that because of the absence of PML-N ministers, there is no one to answer their questions. He said that the record of the former government in this connection was very good. The then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani used to make sure that not only he but his ministers as well were present at National Assembly sessions. Special correspondent of Geo News Arshad Waheed Chaudhry said that one can count on one’s fingers the days Nawaz Sharif attended the National Assembly sessions. In a yet different segment of the programme, Kamran Khan said that the mega-corruption cases that emerged in the final days of the previous government also included the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. He said that the principal character and the then chief of TDAP Tariq Puri has been arrested. Tariq Puri had misused the facilities that the government extends on exports from Pakistan and weaved a web of corruption through which billions of rupees were siphoned off from the national exchequer. The chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Fazlur Rehman, said in the programme that there is a consensus on the national level over the fact that talks are the solution to the problem of terrorism. He said that the incident in Upper Dir was very unfortunate. Such an incident at such a critical time is an attempt to disrupt the process of talks even before it gets under way. Fazlur Rehman said that there seems to a lobby which wants to sabotage talks process.