Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, on Monday warned that preconditions for talks with Taliban would yield more instability, asking the opponents to let the process begin to end the decade-long bloodshed. Talking to a group of newsmen at Idarae Noor-e-Haq, he urged the federal government to announce a panel of negotiators to hold talks with the Taliban without further delay.
He said that the opponents to talks with Taliban should not stress on disarming of militants, as once peace process starts the situation will ease to clam down the hard-liners. "Never a government has comply with a number of articles of the Constitution while the same Constitution has been held in abeyance by military dictators then why opponents single out Taliban for non-recognition of Constitution," he questioned.
He termed calling for disarming Taliban ahead of peace talks as "sabotaging" the entire process to stem unrest in the country. "Preconditioning to disarm Taliban is meant to sabotage peace process," he said, adding that the government should not stress on disarming of Taliban and mainly focus on talks and efforts to end bloodshed.
Professor Ibrahim Khan said the Taliban opposed the country's Constitution because they were unaware of it has Islamic norms as per Sharia. "If Taliban come to know the Constitution is purely Islamic then no Talib will oppose it. The Constitution just needs implementation by the government," he added. He proposed the government to broaden the scope of negotiations with Taliban by including Ulema from all parts of the country to make the process more effective and irreversible.
"If we really intend to establish a permanent peace and end the decade-long unrest in the country, the government has to announce its detachment from the US war on terror as frontline battling state," he said. He said the government should renounce its agreements with World Bank, IMF and the US to end its financial reliance on western organisation and nations, suggesting the government to build economy through indigenous resources.
The JI leader urged Pakistani and Afghan Taliban to provide a "safe" exit to the US troops from the embattled country to let peace take place in both the countries. He said that the US debt soared to $16.7 dollars with the federal government closure, making its aims to attack any other country at present impractical. "If the US ever tried to attack Pakistan then the same Taliban, army and the nation will turn Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean a graveyard for its soldiers," he asserted.
About Karachi operation, Professor Ibrahim Khan urged the provincial government to provide security to police officials taking action against the target killers and should not become victims to terrorism as many officers and personnel were killed after 1996 clampdown, which Nasir Ullah Khan Babar had initiated.
