Taliban close doors on talks with govt

The News 19 September 2013 KARACHI: With the announcement by the Tehreek-e-Taliban that they will continue targeting the Pakistan Army, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has virtually closed the door on the option of talks with the government of Pakistan, said Kamran Khan in his programme ‘Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath’ on Tuesday. It seems that the TTP has given an unambiguous message to the people of Pakistan that the Taliban are not prepared for meaningful talks with Pakistan.Kamran Khan said that now the political and military leaderships of the country have to decide the future course of action. He said that it seems that things are moving in the direction of war. Kamran Khan said that the nation still wants to see a peaceful solution though the situation is very complex. He said that the political leadership has not yet said that it does not want talks or that war is the only option. The political leadership is saying that war is the last option. Commenting on Karachi operation, Kamran Khan said the operation has taken a disturbing turn. It has been officially admitted that the former MPA of MQM, Nadeem Hashmi, was arrested on a fake FIR about terrorism and murder, and that he is innocent and therefore he has been released. Kamran Khan said that this is a disturbing fact that the area SHO has maneuvered a fake case, but it is yet to be ascertained why the SHO has done so. Kamran Khan said that an MQM MPA, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, had said recently that a formula had been worked out according to which the sector and unit in charges of the MQM would be arrested whenever some criminal activity happens anywhere in Karachi. Kamran Khan said that the disclosure had not been taken seriously then but now it is the need of the hour that it is taken seriously. It is now incumbent on the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, to find out if the police have indeed been given any such instructions or not. Moreover, it is essential that the people are told what action is to be taken against the policeman who had fashioned a false case. In a different segment of the programme, Kamran Khan said that in an important development, an accused in Lyari Gang War, Amin Buledi, has been arrested in Lahore. According to information, another person who was said to be associated with the Sindh Assembly had also been arrested, but she was later released. Moving on to the hot topic of cricket and the ignominious defeat our cricket team have suffered at the hands of Zimbabwe, Kamran Khan said that the defeat has agitated cricket fans across the country. It appears that cricket administration is in topsy-turvy. The chairman of PCB, Najam Sethi, says that the cause of confusion and chaos in cricket in the country is the court verdict. Sethi says that an Islamabad High Court judgment has restricted his functioning as the PCB chief. In a yet different segment of the programme, Kamran Khan said that though it is premature to give a verdict on the performance of the government in its first 100 days in office, yet an assessment in this connection does show the direction the government is heading to. The overall impression in the country at Nawaz government’s completing first 100 days in office is quite positive. However, there have been incidents in those hundred days which were painful. It is safe to say that the report on the first hundred days of the government is a mixed one. On the negative side in those hundred days are the incidents of terrorism and the falling value of the rupee whereas on the positive side is the fact that the government has succeeded in creating harmony over national issues and it also managed to launch a decisive operation in Karachi. The chairman of PCB, Najam Sethi, said in the programme that court judgments have rendered him without much power or authority so much so that he does not even have the power to form the selection committee. Sethi said that they have challenged the court judgment, but no hearing has been held on their appeal so far. On an optimistic note, however, Sethi said that they are doing their homework so that they can dash ahead as soon as their authority is restored. Former ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand said in the programme that the announcement by the Taliban that they will continue attacking the Pakistan Army has been quite shocking. He said that it is now abundantly clear that the Taliban are not interested in talks anymore.