Meeting with TTP committee cancelled

ISLAMABAD: Mystery surrounded the last-minute cancellation of a meeting between Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Taliban negotiators on Saturday. The interior ministry had announced the previous day that a meeting with the Taliban negotiation committee had been convened. But the meeting did not take place for some inexplicable reason. Professor Ibrahim, a member of the Taliban committee, said he had not been informed of a meeting scheduled for Saturday. Asked if there was any misunderstanding, he said that he was not in a position to offer any comment. An official of the ministry told Dawn that according to his information no meeting was scheduled for Saturday. But he had no answer when asked why an official announcement was made about Saturday’s meeting after the minister met Taliban committee’s head Maulana Samiul Haq two days ago. “There might have been some misunderstanding,” was Prof Ibrahim’s brief comment. But, he added, it would be inappropriate to jump to the conclusion that the Taliban committee had refused to meet the minister or the government committee or that the peace process had hit a dead end. He said that during Thursday’s meeting, Samiul Haq had expressed the hope about finding a peaceful solution through dialogue. All eyes were on Saturday’s proposed meeting, which was expected to be a joint session of the committees representing the government and the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) because the Taliban committee has never separately met the minister since its formation. The meeting was being dubbed as crucial as it was going to be the first after the TTP refused to extend its ceasefire, but announced that the door for dialogue was open. Chaudhry Nisar had said on Thursday that the talks would become meaningless in the absence of ceasefire. Officials wonder what made the TTP to end the ceasefire, particularly after the release of 19 non-combatant Taliban and the government decision in principle to free around a dozen more. “We were expecting them to reciprocate by starting release of civilians in their custody but their refusal to extend ceasefire, in response to a goodwill gesture, is surprising,” an official said. He said it had been made clear by the government that negotiations would be held under the framework of the Constitution and that talks and terrorism could not go together. “The government is serious about taking the peace process forward and has practically shown it. Now it’s the turn of the other side to respond in the same way,” he said.