ISLAMABAD: The government has started contacting opposition parties to dissuade them from launching a mass protest in the federal capital, said defense minister Pervez Khattak on Thursday.
“We have started negotiating with all opposition parties and hopefully [the effort] will yield positive results in the next couple of days,” he said in an informal chat with journalists in Islamabad.
The prime minister on Wednesday announced to form a committee led by Khattak to hold talks with the opposition factions, especially the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) that has announced to start its “Azadi March” on October 27 and enter the federal capital on October 31 to dislodge the government.
JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been struggling to start an agitation against the government since the general elections in July last year wherein his party only managed to clinch a dozen seats in the National Assembly.
He has now received political support from other major opposition groups – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – who accuse the government of deteriorating the country’s economy and victimizing opposition politicians by slamming them in jails on corruption charges.
“Pakistan is a democratic country and we want to resolve all issues of the opposition through dialogue,” the defense minister said, though he also warned the opposition parties against creating an environment of chaos and turmoil in the country.
“It is their [opposition’s] democratic right to protest, but if the opposition only wants to spread anarchy in the garb of agitation we won’t allow it,” Khattak added.
Meanwhile, the JUI-F has ruled out the possibility of talks with the government until the prime minister resigns from his position. “This is an illegitimate government, a product of rigged elections and we may talk to them only after the prime minister resigns,” Hafiz Hamdullah, senior JUI-F leader, told Arab News.
He said that “all preparations for the anti-government march are in place and no force can stop us now from marching toward Islamabad.”
Political analysts said the government’s engagement with the opposition parties to stop their protest at this stage would not yield result, but some differences over issues, such as transparency in elections and improvement in governance, can be worked out.
“Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who was reduced to a nobody after the last year’s elections, has succeeded in garnering political relevance through mounting pressure against the government,” Zahid Hussain, a political commentator, told Arab News.
He said the opposition parties would protest against the government as per plan, but “they will neither succeed in getting the prime minister’s resignation nor a new date for fresh polls in the country.”
Government hopeful to avert opposition protest through dialogue
Government hopeful to avert opposition protest through dialogue
- Says it’s opposition’s right to protest, but the government won’t allow anyone to create chaos
- Analysts maintain the JUI-F chief has acquired political relevance by mounting pressure on the government
Security forces kill nine Pakistani Taliban militants in restive northwest, military says
- The militants were killed in separate operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu districts
- Pakistan this week summoned Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission to demand action against the Pakistani Taliban
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan security forces have killed nine Pakistani Taliban militants in two separate engagements in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the military said on Sunday, amid a surge in militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan.
Four militants were killed in an intelligence-based operation in KP's Dera Ismail Khan, while five other Pakistani Taliban members were gunned in an exchange of fire with security forces in the Bannu district, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing.
Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the deceased "Indian-sponsored" militants, who remained actively involved in numerous activities against security forces and law enforcement agencies and target killing of civilians. There was no immediate response from India to the statement.
"Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian sponsored kharja [militant] found in the area," the ISPR said in a statement. "Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out menace of foreign sponsored and supported terrorism from the country."
KP has seen a surge in militancy in recent years, with the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and other militant groups frequently targeting security forces convoys and check-posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.
Pakistan this week summoned Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission and demanded “decisive action” against the TTP after four Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on a military camp in KP’s North Waziristan district that also killed four assailants, according to the Pakistani foreign office.
Islamabad has long accused Kabul of allowing its soil and India of backing militant groups, including the TTP, for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi have consistently denied this.
The uptick in militant violence triggered fierce clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Oct. The two countries agreed to a ceasefire in Doha on Oct. 19, but tensions remain high between the neighbors.
