Talks with Taliban: JUI-F asks govt to create conducive environment

ISLAMABAD: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-
F) which has already decided not to play any
mediatory role in peace talks with Taliban
warned the PML-N government on Thursday of
a “complex situation” after withdrawal by the
militant organisation of its offer for talks. It
urged the government to create “conducive
environment for reconciliation”.
“Let us try to create a conducive environment for
talks and reconciliation, otherwise we will end
up fighting insurgency for years and the chance
for national building will be lost for decades,” a
JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai quoted Maulana
Fazlur Rehman as saying.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Achakzai said that Maulana
Fazlur Rehman believed that reconciliation with
the Taliban would not be possible if coercive
measures continued to be taken.
“We have to take them on board, otherwise we
will not be able to maintain sovereignty in Fata
whether because of Taliban challenging the writ
of the state or drones violating our sovereignty,”
said the Maulana.
According to the JUI-F chief, nearly 50,000
people had so far lost their lives because of
terrorism, but if “we do not find a solution,
there will be more losses incurred”.
Maulana Fazl said it was understandable that
the establishment was not ready to talk to
Taliban as “our officers and soldiers are dying”.
But, he claimed, military operations had not
contained militancy over the past decade and it
was time “to face it straight”.
The JUI-F chief suggested that “work should start
soon to remove the disconnect between all
stakeholders on Fata and the Taliban
insurgency.”
A few days ago, the JUI-F chief had stated that
his party was no more interested in playing any
role in bringing Taliban to the negotiating table
after realising that the country’s powerful
establishment was not in favour of any such
process.
He claimed to have the information that the
army had no interest whatsoever in peace talks
and reconciliation and, therefore, there was no
environment for any talks.
Soon after May 11 elections, the JUI-F and the
PML-N had started discussing a power-sharing
formula and the two parties had also constituted
committees to finalise it.
Earlier, the JUI-F had claimed that both parties
had agreed that talks with Taliban would be
held through a “grand peace jirga” as agreed by
the mainstream political parties in a
“declaration” at all-party conference organised
by the JUI-F in Islamabad on Feb 28.
But now the JUI-F feels that the PML-N appears
to have lost interest in it after the Taliban
withdrew the talks offer in the wake of the killing
of their impor-tant commander in a drone attack.