Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of the JUI-F, asked about the banned talks between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Saturday, “How did those with weapons come back to the tribal areas without negotiating and agreeing?”
Earlier this month, it was said that the government was making a “backup plan” in case the terrorist group, the Taliban, came back. This was because there were rumors that some Taliban fighters had been seen in the Swat valley.
Even though the government had been talking with the TTP for months about making a deal, sources close to the situation told The Express Tribune that the chances of a deal were low.
The TTP’s insistence on undoing the merger of the former tribal areas with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province was one of the biggest problems. Pakistani negotiators, on the other hand, say that the demand is a red line because any changes would have to be approved by Pakistan’s parliament.
Defense Minister Khawaja Asif also had doubts about how well the talks would go, and Pakistan’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq, said the peace process was in its “infancy.”
Fazl talked about the talks between the government and the TTP at a general body meeting of his party on Saturday.
“There was talk about making deals. How did those [TTP terrorists] with weapons go back to the tribal areas without talking and agreeing?”
He said that JUI-F was ready for peace, but it also wanted to feel safe because “people on the other side were armed.”
The head of the JUI-F talked about “hidden forces” and said that they had made the country into a place where political parties that didn’t care about the Quran and Sunnah were “imposed.”
He said that he remembered when Pakistan gave loans to China and was sad that things were now the other way around.
“Pakistan is getting worse and worse. The IMF has “held us by the neck” and forced us to do what it wants.
He said again that Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI and a former prime minister, got money from the US and India.
Fazl said that his party did not have a “foreign agenda.” He also said that a country can only have a revolt when it goes bankrupt.
“There are forces in our provinces that are waiting to take advantage of this situation.”
