Pakistan: Rabbani calls for deadlines, transparency in Taliban talks

Pakistan Today

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Raza Rabbani on Tuesday demanded that a deadline should be decided upon for results in relation to talks between negotiators representing the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), adding that the government should also explain the terms and conditions involved in these negotiations. Speaking at a session of the Senate, Rabbani severely criticised the government’s decision to approach the talks’ route with the militants. Senator Rabbani said the government should not bring the state down to a level “where it may become helpless before terrorists”. He further said that by not deciding on the issue during the past seven months, the government had given the Taliban opportunity to organise and strengthen themselves. The PPP senator moreover said that an in camera session of the Parliament be called on the dialogue. Rabbani was also critical of the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance (PPO) and called it a “black law in violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution”. He questioned why the ordinance had been brought in when a functioning Parliament was in place.