Defending the policies adopted by the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government to deal with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), party vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Sunday that his Criticism of the decision to negotiate with the banned organization was “unnecessary”.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership blames the previous government for the recent rise in terrorism in the country. In January, Foreign Minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the previous government had adopted a policy of “appeasing” the TTP.
Qureshi, who served as foreign minister in the PTI government, said he decided to mainstream the Pakistani Taliban because they had to return.
However, he said that certain conditions have been laid down to bring the Taliban into the mainstream. The PTI leader said that the group should recognize the constitution of Pakistan and should not bring arms from Afghanistan.
“They have to come here and live in peace, they have to be resettled,” Qureshi said in an interview.
The PTI leader said that the then National Assembly was briefed on the issue during an in-camera session.
Blaming the PDM-led government, the PTI leader said that the meetings were attended by the current Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Bilawal, the then Army Chief, ISI chief and all others.
He added that those who are raising objections today were all sitting in the briefing.
The former minister said that after this meeting, it was decided that they should go ahead and make a plan of action regarding the return of the Taliban, but soon after that, the PTI government was overthrown.
