LHC refuses request to enforce Taliban talks

LAHORE: Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court Umar Ata Bandial denied Advocate Kashif Mehmod Solomani’s request to direct the federal government to hold talks with the Taliban and allow them to open an office in the country. Chief Justice Bandial remarked that the courts cannot interfere unless there is a violation of basic fundamental rights and law. The court further remarked that there is a resolution of All Parties Conference (APC) in this regard and there are democratic institutions to deal with this matter and courts can do nothing in this regard. The court adjourned the hearing until November to allow Advocate Kashif more time to prepare his argument. Advocate Solomani had filed a petition asking the LHC to direct the federal government to hold talks with the Taliban and let them open an office. He had made federation of Pakistan, interior ministry, ministry of defence and ministry of finance as respondents. The petitioner had stated that the surgical strikes against Taliban in Pakistan without dialogues will be a grave error for peace. He further added that the respondents may be directed to hold dialogues with Taliban to ensure peace in the country. He had said that Pakistan had lost 49,000 people in the war against terror since 9/11 and more than 24,000 civilians and troops had been killed in attacks between 2001 and 2008. “The armed forces had lost 15,681 men fighting the Taliban militants in the Tribal Areas since 2008. Some 5,152 civilians had been killed and 5,678 injured in bomb blasts and suicide attacks since 2008,” the petitioner further had added. Solomani had stated that “Pakistan had become an ally of US against war on terror after the 9/11 attack and since then Pakistan has suffered a huge loss to its economy totalling about $100 billion. Consequently economic growth has slowed in addition to the demand for imports going down with consequential decline in tax collection. Inflows of foreign investment were naturally adversely affected accentuated by the travel bans issued by western government to its entrepreneurs.” He had added that Pakistan continued to pay a heavy price in terms of both economic as well as security terms. He had further stated that a large portion of its resources both human and material have been consumed by this war for the last several years. Solomani had said that talks with the Taliban were an “efficacious, adequate and alternative remedy” to fighting, but this option was being ignored. Military action had borne no fruit so it was time to try dialogue. He had said that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had denied involvement in three recent bomb attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which raised the question of who was behind the attacks. The petitioner had further said that a Taliban office would facilitate the dialogue process. He had stated that the national leadership should give dialogue a chance to deal with extreme issue of Taliban in the interest of peace. He added that according to the Charter of United Nations Organization, no sanctions can be imposed on Pakistan for dialogues with Taliban. All Parties Conference Political parties had unanimously reached a resolution on September 9 at the APC, stating that negotiation with the militants should be pursued as their first option to counter terrorism. The draft, drawn up at the end of the conference was signed by all the political parties in attendance. It was decided that another APC will be called to resolve the issues facing the terror-stricken province, Balochistan. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said on September 9 that holding negotiations with terrorists was their own decision. It was decided that if the negotiations with the militants don’t work, “action” will be taken against them.